Production Begins On Post-Apocalyptic Thriller Written And Produced By 'Paranormal Activity' Creator Oren Peli

In 2009, Paramount released Oren Peli's tiny little movie Paranormal Activity, to great success. That film has already spawned two hugely successful sequels, and even as Paranormal was being released Peli was already working on another film called Area 51.

There's not yet any sign of Area 51, two years later, but Peli is reportedly still finishing that movie, while working as a producer on other projects: the TV show The River, Rob Zombie's new movie The Lords of Salem, and a project he wrote which was called The Diary of Lawson Oxford, but is currently being referred to as the Untitled Oren Peli Project.

This last one is a post-apocalyptic thriller that started shooting this week in Eastern Europe. We've got more details after the break.

A press release says the former Diary of Lawson Oxford is about,

...a group of friends who become stranded in an eerie and desolate city. Abandoned years before in the aftermath of a nuclear disaster, nature has begun to reclaim everything. As the sun sets on this radioactive ghost town, inhuman cries cut through the night air. It seems they are not alone.

Peli wrote and is producing with Brian Witten (Dark City, Final Destination); Brad Parker is directing. (He's an effects guy whose resume includes Fight Club, xXx, Let Me In and the Locke & Key pilot.)

The ensemble cast includes Jonathan Sadowski, Devin Kelley, Jesse McCartney, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Nathan Phillips, Ingrid Bolso Berdal and Dimitri Diatchenko.

Beyond those details we know next to nothing about the project, aside from the fact that it is intended to scare us, as Peli suggests in this quote: "I love my job. I get to work with a talented director like Brad on the kind of scary movie I know I'd happily stand in line to see." Knowing the way Peli's movies tend to go we can expect this one to be shot and finished pretty quickly, though we may not see anything from it for months to come.

FilmNation is financing the shoot, and there is no domestic distributor set yet.