Paramount

Paramount's Circle of Eight started as a 10-part webseries directed by Stephen Cragg, a man who has worked almost exclusively as a director-for-hire in the TV world. I think that information is sufficient enough for most to make a decision as to whether or not it is worth their time, but seeing as that would make for a superficial review, I'll give it more attention than most ever will in the hope that most will never have to.

I don't want to make it sound like I have it in for all content that begins its life on the web. Far from it, actually. There are a lot of smart, creative people out there who turn to the Internet as a means for distribution and in doing so embrace the pros and cons of the medium. Circle of Eight, on the other hand, was produced in large part by a major motion picture studio's relatively unproductive Digital Entertainment division (last thing they did was 2005's Jackass 2.5). This tells me one thing: it wasn't good enough to turn into a movie.

Whether it was indeed ever intended to be a movie and Paramount just shuffled it to the Digital Entertainment division or whether the latter developed it from the ground up with this intention, I do not know. Doesn't really matter where it was supposed to start its life, however, as Circle of Eight was stillborn.

The past two weeks created a fever-pitch buzz over who was at fault in the Conan O'Brien/Jay Leno Tonight Show hosting duties feud and how it would all turn out. Well, now that it's over (for the most part, Team Coco still doesn't have a job officially lined up), the collective conscience that is Hollywood must have realized that their was a new void in entertainment rivalries and decided to conjure a new one up. The unfortunate winners/victims? Saw VII (Lionsgate) and Paranormal Activity 2 (Paramount).

Just a few days ago Paramount announced that it would not only be going after the Halloween marketplace with an October 22nd release date, but that it would be hiring Saw VI director Kevin Greutert to direct the (unnecessary) sequel. Lionsgate didn't take too kindly to news that the studio who beat them at the box office last Halloween was posing themselves to do it again this year - and with their latest director, no less - so they decided to exercise an option in Greutert's contract that basically said "It's up to us whether you make your next movie at Lionsgate or not". In case the existence of this post wasn't clue enough, Lionsgate decided to reel him back home.

So the one-time director of Paranormal Activity 2 has just replaced the one-time director of Saw VII (part V's David Hackl) due to the whims of the studio. All of this arrives with principal photography just two weeks away on Saw VII, which really makes Lionsgate look like bad guys in this feud. I'm glad the guy who made the worst Saw film is now off the project (Lionsgate contractually must find him another gig, however), but shuffling/stealing directors a matter of days before production begins on the first 3D Saw film certainly makes it look like there is zero quality control being exercised over there.

Paramount has hired Saw VI director Kevin Greutert and prime time veteran writer Michael R. Perry to create the sequel to last year's indie sensation, Paranormal Activity. Director Oren Peli made the film on a $15,000 budget but it went on to cash in over $150 million worldwide, boasting a clever web marketing campaign. Peli and Jason Blum will continue on with the series as producers and Steven Schneider (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance redux) will serve as executive producer. Ironically, Paranormal Activity 2 will be up against Lionsgate's Saw VII for this year's pre-Halloween weekend. After Saw VI grossed a mere $31 million in 2009, many are left wondering if the franchise is dying and if a Paranormal Activity series may be ready to take its place.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Peli is behind the new team stating, "These guys get it, and the fans won't be disappointed." The storyline about a a young couple who battle a malevolent entity after capturing evidence on tape will be kept intact. No word yet if the cast of four will return for the sequel and no clues as to whether or not Greutert will use the same approach as Peli--using unknown actors and setting the story in a singular location. That was part of the beauty of the first film and I'm leery that this aspect will remain.

If all this news sounds familiar, then you're probably thinking of the Blair Witch phenomenon, which fell flat after Artisan Entertainment pushed for a sequel on the coattails of a successful first go-round. Paramount is hoping to do the same after Paranormal Activity by spending $1 million a year to make a dozen or more low budget films, each costing less than $100,000. Peli's hotly anticipated Area 51, now in post-production, won't be part of this schematic as he'll be working with a $5 million budget this time.

I'm not sure if Paranormal Activity's mythology lends itself to another film. Personally, it didn't hold up for me upon repeated viewings and I've been exhausted by the constant coverage of the film, months after its release. I can't help but think this sequel is going to crush the subtlety of the first film and bleed it dry entirely. I have a deep respect for what Peli has done and want to cheer him on but I'm really torn. Where do you stand on things?

Oren Peli is having the greatest Friday the 13th of his life. We all love the shifting Holiday, but none of us can be as happy to greet today as the director of Paranormal Activity, whose film will be hurtling over the $100 million threshold at some point today, which, like his film, is simultaneously believable and unbelievable. I can clearly see why it has dominated at the box office, but I don't think anyone involved with the film (either before or after it was bought) prophesied how monumentally successful it would become.

But I'm not here to tell you once again that you should go see Paranormal Activity, you've already heard that a thousand times over. I would, however, like to use this time to give Oren Peli a standing ovation by putting things a little further into perspective. Within another week, PA will have grossed more money than the cumulative totals of Halloween II, The Uninvited, The Stepfather, and Saw VI. Their combined budgets? Approximately $60 million. If that doesn't show a little innovation goes a long way, I don't know what does.

Even more amazing? Once Paranormal Activity opens internationally, it could potentially earn more money than it cost to produce every single other theatrical horror movie released in the US combined, which by my estimate is around the $170-180 million mark. If that happens, and I am positive it will, I hope that Paramount gives everyone involved with making this film a bonus worth more than any amount of money I'll ever see. Sure, being the most profitable movie all time is a nice feather in your cap, but costing only $15,000 and making more money than the combined budgets of every single other American horror movie of the year? I don't even know what to say to that. It just makes me want to throw my hands up in the air in defeat.

My hat is off to you, Mr. Peli.

The production company everyone loves to hate, Platinum Dunes, is going to be working with writer Stephen Susco (Grudge, Grudge 2) in a rewrite on Paramount Pictures' The Butcherhouse Chronicles. Bloody-Disgusting reports that Frank Borin is no longer attached to direct, with no word yet on who is taking his spot.

Butcherhouse is a darkly comic horror stage show about a group of high school students who set out to discover the truth behind a haunted property known as the Butcherhouse. It's rumored that Emma Stone (Zombieland) will be starring as one of the leads.

For those of you who haven't fainted yet at the idea of Platinum Dunes not rehashing one of your favorite childhood horror flicks, you might be interested in where Butcherhouse comes from. Michael Hidalgo originally penned the story and has offered a little info about the origins of the project on his blog:

"The Butcherhouse Chronicles was and *is* a deeply personal stage play that I started writing in April of 2003. My life was very different back then. I was getting ready to be married, locked into a dead-end job, trying to keep the dreams alive. I finished writing the first draft of the play about six months later, around October of 2003. Though I'd written a series of short pieces and one-acts, this was my first full-length stage play. CUT TO a few years later, 2006. I'm getting a divorce, the play is staged at the Summer Play Festival and gets optioned by Paramount about a month after that festival production."

Carriers is a film everyone should see but not many had the opportunity to. This solid thriller directed by Alex and David Pastor about a foursome fleeing a devastating virus that has wiped out much of the American landscape was completed in 2007 but not released until September of this year, and only in about one hundred theaters across the country.

As a result the film slipped under the radar of most despite garnering incredibly impressive reviews. One would think the film would experience a surge in popularity based upon this once it gets released on DVD, but even that's being delayed, as Shock Till You Drop reports that Paramount Home Entertainment will release the film for rent on December 8th, then make it available for purchase at a later date, presumably one month to six weeks later.

While this later release date really isn't that big of a deal, it's just another example of a solid horror film getting the shaft for no discernible reason. The process of getting Carriers out to the masses has been long and laborious, so why delay it? It's clearly a niche film that will only appeal to a select group of people, but those people will buy it, and they don't want to have to wait.

Echoing the sentiments of fellow Horror Squadder Peter Hall, the amount of attention Paranormal Activity has been, for lack of a better phrase, off the chain. Even I'm getting a little burnt out on the constant coverage of the film, despite having seen it three times and considering it one of the most important horror films in the past decade (for a variety of reasons).

On the heels of the film's release in foreign markets - it opens on Halloween night in the United Kingdom and will premiere steadily in other major markets over the course of the next month or two (the full roll-out schedule is below) - Variety is reporting that several countries, including Spain, Russia and a slew of Asian territories - have begun to snag licensing rights to remake the film in their native tongue.

Paramount currently holds the rights to a stateside remake, though much of the interest seems to be not in the foreign language remakes, but whether or not the film can break the $100 million mark by going international. Stuart Ford, who heads IM Global, the company responsible for licensing the worldwide distribution rights to Paranormal Activity, had this to say concerning the film's international appeal:

I suppose web series are a more lucrative business model than a cynic like myself assumed, because Paramount's "Circle of Eight" looks like a more elaborate production than one would expect from a series that premieres its episodes on MySpace. I mean, it does have DJ Qualls in it, the star of such timeless classics as Road Trip, The New Guy, and, of course, The Core. That casting alone instantly elevates "Circle of Eight" above the competition. Er...you're telling me Crackle's "Woke Up Dead" stars Jon Heder? Okay, so maybe getting comedic actors who were at their career apex five years ago to star in a web series isn't that hard to do.

Kidding aside, the trailer (embedded below) for "Circle of Eight" has a nice 'dilapidated apartment building and its creepy tenants' vibe a la Toolbox Murders going on. And the official description promises all kinds of special little web touches like hidden clues, games, and even cell-phone content for those who are into that kind of thing when the show premieres on October 27th.

"Jessica, a newcomer to the City of Angels, has just moved into a loft on the eighth floor of The Dante, a historic and eerie downtown building filled with friendly twenty-something neighbors who eagerly welcome her into their bohemian world. Or do they? As Jessica races to unravel the mystery behind a chain of horrifying deaths that only she seems to see, she'll come face-to-face with the chilling truth behind her connection to The Dante. Join her and her hot neighbor, Evan, in ten intense episodes that offer multiple levels of interaction, including hidden clues, mobile content, an online game and exclusive material that builds the back story of the characters and their relationships and gives the audience the chance to affect their futures."

This morning at 10:20 I headed out to a nearby AMC megaplex to see a film called Carriers. For reasons best left to the experts (like this one and this one) to explain, the film had been sitting on a shelf at Paramount Vantage for well over a year. One can only assume that contractual obligations are what compelled Paramount to dump the film into theaters in the first place, and the grand total screen count? 96. (You can see a full listing of the markets graced by Carriers' presence right here at Filmjerk.)

So this is hardly news, right? A "boutique" subsidiary gets absorbed (pretty much in full) by its parent company, and then voila ... you've got a handful of "indie-style" studio products that get little to no love from the distributor, the marketing departments, the press, or the movie-going public. Of course there's nothing shameful about a hundred-screen release, and it's not like Carriers is "mainstream" horror in any way, but why'd the studio refuse to release the flick in Los Angeles and New York? Because it's crap?

Nope, it's actually pretty good, truth be told. (I liked it, anyway. Here's my review at FEARnet.) It might have been even better had the film not been re-submitted to the MPAA for the apparently sacred PG-13 rating ... but what does the rating matter when the film cannot be found anywhere? Anyway, I'd love to hear some feedback from anyone who checks the film out this weekend. The rest of us can chat once Carriers hits DVD ... almost assuredly before the end of the year.