Paramount Pictures has picked up the distribution rights to director Oren Peli’s “Area 51,” the much anticipated follow-up to his smash-hit debut, “Paranormal Activity.”
“Area 51” will follow the same found-footage lines as “Paranormal Activity” has been kept so secret by Peli that he won’t discuss it in interviews, even going as far as to not mention it by name or his association with the project.
The film is expected to be more ambitious with multiple locations and special effects. According to BFDMemo, “Peli had a much larger budget to work with on this extraterrestrial tale than he did for his ghost story, as sources said he brought the film in at a shade under $5 million.”
The story will follow three teens whose curiosity brings them to infiltrate the infamous top secret Area 51 base searching for extra-terrestrial lifeforms.
There’s no word yet on when the new movie will drop, but it’s expected to debut sometime in 2010 with Paramount distributing.
Peli’s “Paranormal Activity” is currently one of the most profitable films of all time. With a budget of only $11,000, it has pulled in more than $106 million at the box office. With “Area 51” following the same formula, will it success? Or is the cat already out of the bag?