Paramount Picks Up Oren Peli’s ‘Area 51’

With the unbridled success of this fall’s Paranormal Activity, it seemed a sure thing that director Oren Peli’s next project would be an instant pickup for the studio, and that theory has proven to be true. According to Variety, Paramount recently bought the distribution rights for Peli’s Area 51, which reportedly again utilizes Paranormal Activity’s “handicam” style of shooting. According to the trade:

“51, which completed principal photography three weeks ago, was fully financed by Incentive and the Aramid Entertainment Fund. Latter is a co-financing partner of Par’s slate on films that include the ‘Transformers’ films.

The film employs the ‘found footage’ narrative structure that Peli used in ‘Paranormal Activity’ to tell the story of three teens whose curiosity leads them to the notorious Area 51 portion of Nellis Air Force Base in the Nevada desert.”

For those who don’t remember, Paranormal was given a very slow release across the country, with interested people told to “demand” the film to be released in their area. After a few screenings in key cities, the film was given a wide release, and did phenomenally well at the box office and critically.

Peli’s newest film reportedly did quite well in the American Film Market, and was sold almost instantly across the globe, with the exception of Japan and a few Eastern European countries. No word yet on when the film will get it’s release here in the US, but you can probably expect to see some interesting viral marketing coming out of Paramount’s camp in the early part of 2010.