The Pang Brothers' Untitled Ghost House Pic Starts Shooting!

Now this is just strange. First Terry Gilliam's Tideland shot there and now the Pang Brothers have set up in Canada's Very Flat Place (a.k.a. Saskatchewan) to shoot their English language feature for Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures with Mandate - Ghost House's partner on The Grudge and Boogeyman - and Blue Star Pictures also on board. News about the film first started to circulate under the title of Scarecrow, but that title has now been set aside with the film being referred to only as "The Untitled Pang Brothers Horror Project".

The film's got a solid cast in Panic Room's Kristen Stewart along with Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller and John Corbett. Corbett's hit and miss for me but I see him working in this setting and McDermott is a guy who has proven himself hugely talented on television but has yet to really find his niche on the big screen.

With Collateral's Stuart Beattie behind the original script, since re-written by Mark Wheaton, this should finally be a case where the Pangs have some substance to back up all that style after a little run of films ultimately betrayed by soft scripts. Okay, the guy from Jason X worked on it, too, but Beattie's really, really good. Bangkok Dangerous, One Take Only and The Eye are all just solid, solid films so here's hoping they're given the chance to really show what they can do here ...

Read on for the official press release.

CULVER CITY, CA (June 29, 2005) — Ghost House Pictures announced today that Kristen Stewart (Panic Room), Dylan McDermott (“The Practice”), Penelope Ann Miller (The Relic, Carlito’s Way) and John Corbett (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, “Sex and the City”) have joined The Untitled Pang Brothers Horror Project, which started shooting recently in Saskatchewan, Canada. Written by Mark Wheaton, based on a previous script from Stuart Beattie (Collateral, Pirates of the Caribbean) from an original script by Todd Farmer (Jason X), the film will be produced by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert of Ghost House Pictures in association with Blue Star Pictures’ Jason Shuman and William Sherak. Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane of Mandate Pictures will executive produce. Jim Miller and J.R. Young are overseeing the production for Ghost House.

Columbia Pictures will distribute in North America with Mandate Pictures handling international sales.

There is something wicked coming this way as the Pang Brothers and Ghost House Pictures join forces for a chilling new thriller. An ominous darkness invades a seemingly serene sunflower farm in North Dakota and the Solomon family (Stewart, McDermott, Miller) is torn apart by suspicion, mayhem and murder.

This project marks Oxide and Danny Pang’s first English language project. The Brothers are best known for their enormously successful horror films The Eye and The Eye 2.

Stated Raimi and Tapert, “We’re all looking forward to getting production underway this week with such a talented cast and getting Oxide and Danny behind the camera.”

Ghost House Pictures has quickly become the preeminent horror brand in Hollywood. With the creative autonomy and the ability to self-finance, develop, package and produce broad appeal theatrical films, the company has delivered such record-breaking hits as The Grudge and Boogeyman. Formed in May 2002, Ghost House Pictures is dedicated to producing commercial horror films for the studios and major independents worldwide. Ghost House's upcoming slate includes: Takashi Shimizu’s horror sequel The Grudge 2; Sebastian Gutierrez’s Rise starring Lucy Liu; Dibbuk Box; and a remake of the seminal horror classic The Evil Dead.

Columbia Pictures, part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, is a Sony Pictures Entertainment company. Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America (SCA), a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE’s global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital content creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in 67 countries. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sonypictures.com.