While the Happy Death Day filmmaker was already confirmed to be returning for the latest installment in Paramount Pictures’ hit horror franchise, Underwater‘s William Eubank has signed on to helm the next Paranormal Activity installment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
RELATED: Christopher Landon Returning To Pen New Paranormal Activity
The seventh installment in the series, which is being produced by Paramount Players, is not being described as a remake or a continuation of the series by sources, but rather an “unexpected retooling” of the franchise thus far.
Before creating the critical and commercial hit time-loop slasher franchise Happy Death Day, Landon was the primary screenwriter for the Paranormal franchise, penning the script for the second installment and going on to write the third and fourth films, as well as direct the 2014 spin-off The Marked Ones.
2019 marked the ten year anniversary of the release of the first Paranormal Activity movie, which blew up at the domestic box office and set the horror world ablaze with the found footage feature craze. The first Paranormal Activity was produced on a budget of $15,000 dollars and went on to gross $193 million worldwide.
Paranormal Activity was followed by five sequels, exploring the different corners of the vague mythos established in the first film and culminating in 2015’s 3D sequel, The Ghost Dimension. The six movies have brought in over $890 million worldwide, an impressive haul for their micro-budgets and setting the series up as one of the many fan favorite horror franchises in the mid 2000s.
RELATED: October Horror Movie Recommendation: Paranormal Activity 3
Director Oren Peli helmed the original film in the franchise, and unsuccessfully tried to replicate the success of the film with other found footage projects like Chernobyl Diaries and Area 51 in theaters, plus The River on ABC. The franchise also attracted Catfish filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman who directed the third and fourth movies in the series.
The seventh Paranormal Activity was set to hit theaters on March 19 but is currently slated for a March 4, 2022 release.
