Peli in Area 51

With Oren Peli’s PARANORMAL ACTIVITY poised to be Paramount’s new rags-to-riches story, the man has enough clout to get funding for his next single-camera project, AREA 51. The “found footage” story follows a group of teens who sneak onto an Air Force base and witness a secret government cover-up involving well, I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but I’d say the title might be a bit of a giveaway.

The film is being independently financed by Aramid Entertainment Fund and Incentive Filmed Entertainment who are ponying up $5M to Peli. Keep in mind that PARANORMAL cost $11,000, though I suppose they’re going to have to spring for a few shooting permits and rubber alien costumes this time around, which are presumably more expensive than a fan to blow curtains and slam doors shut.

So we’ve seen “found footage” films about witches (BLAIR WITCH), zombies (REC), ghosts (PARANORMAL) and monsters (CLOVERFIELD), I guess it only stands to reason that aliens should be next. Fortunately, most of those films are actually pretty damn good, so here’s to hoping that Area 51 carries on in that tradition.