Universal’s plans to bring the movie ‘Ouija’ out are quickly moving forward as they have now found someone (or rather a duo) to not only direct the low budget film but to also work on the screenplay. Juliet Snowden and Stiles White have taken on the task to bring the supernatural game to the big screen.
Snowden and White have a lot of experience in the supernatural horror genre writing scripts for the movies ‘Boogeyman,’ ‘Knowing’, and ‘The Possession’, They’re names have also been attached to write the screenplay for the ‘Poltergeist’ remake. Whether they will use a portion of the original screenplay for the film ‘Ouija’ or write a whole new story altogether is unknown.
‘Ouija’s’ development story reads like a rollercoaster ride first with Universal commissioning drafts for what would have been a big budget tent pole film similar to ‘Battleship.’ A screenplay was written by the team of Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, both have written on ‘Lost,’ ‘Once Upon A Time,’ and ‘Tron: Uprising.’ Then in August, the studio decided to drop the project only to have it picked up by Paramount as a potential vehicle for McG (‘Terminator Salvation,’ ‘Chuck,’ ‘Supernatural’). But when Paramount couldn’t come to terms with the director on a budget, McG exited the project leaving Paramount to put it in turnaround. Universal then decided to pick it up again in March rethinking the whole format and budget of the movie. They brought in the producer king of low budget horror films, Jason Blum (‘Paranormal Activity,’ Insidious’) to help get the project off the ground.
This will be Snowden’s and White’s first time directing a feature film and although the story is still being kept under wraps, considering the film now has Blum’s signature on it as well as the same budget as ‘Paranormal Activity 3′, you can pretty much imagine where the story will probably go.
Not that this may give you any more hope for ‘Ouija’, but the film will also be produced by Michael Bay and his partners through his Platinum Dunes company. Expect ‘Ouija’ to be released sometime in 2013.