Another found footage project, which was initially reported back in November 2011, is now confirmed, with shooting expected to being at the end of February. The film, once titled Mockingbird will be in the same vain as Paranormal Activity, conceit that becomes so popular in the past five years.
The Strangers helmer Bryan Bertino will attempt to place the viewer literally within the character’s shoes.
Universal is getting into the ‘cinema verite’ game with casting that is currently underway. Bertino is in pre-production on a thriller tentatively titled Mockingbird, which script he also wrote and that follows a couple who receive a video camera with a document of strict instructions. If they don’t follow the rules, they’re told someone will die. The film will focus on their hellish ordeal as they do what they are told and it is set to be produced by Activity series producer Jason Blum.
No doubt, this lo-cost form of pseudo-verite appeals to Hollywood. The found-footage trend began in 1999 with The Blair Witch Project, a movie version of a scary ghost story, and developed with Cloverfield a 2008 monster horror film. The highly publicized success of that feature helped pave the way for Paranormal Activity next year.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the exec-producer of The Devil Inside, says:
There’s a freshness to it — the camera work gives you an intimacy, because you feel like you’re inside something that is real “(And) these films are so wildly profitable — and even when they’re not, the cost of them is so little that it’s an easier shot to take.
Look for more details soon about Mockingbird.
Check out Bertino’s last directed film, the 2008 horror hit The Strangers, starring Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler, for Universal.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1TBlPelvbE[/youtube]
