Get ready for Paranormal activitythe play.
Simon Friend, the experienced producer who brought The life of Pi to Broadway, has picked up the license for the horror film series Paramount with the intention of bringing it to the West End through his Simon Friend Entertainment.
Levi Holloway, who wrote the horror-tinged Broadway play Gray Houseis on board to write the stage adaptation, which is reportedly in early development.
Created by Oren Peli, who wrote, directed and recorded the first part: Paranormal is a horror film series that focuses most of its outings on a family terrorized by a demon. Most of it was made between 2009 and 2015. The films took advantage of the growing proliferation of video and cell phone cameras to tell creepy and terrifying stories to great effect.
Made on micro-budgets, the films were huge moneymakers, with the first considered one of the highest-grossing films ever made, grossing $193.4 million worldwide. The most recent movie, Paranormal activity: relatives, was released in 2021 on Paramount+. Theatrically, the films have grossed nearly $900 million.
Friend is a veteran with extensive experience in bringing films to the stage, both on Broadway and in the West End The Da Vinci Code And The best exotic marigold hotel among the better known titles. Pihas since won five Olivier Awards and three Tonys earlier this year. The story is based on Yann Martel’s novel, which was adapted into an Oscar-winning feature film directed by Ang Lee.
Friend has also branched out into TV and feature film production, producing the 2020 drama The father for which Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for Best Actor.
Holloway is a playwright from Chicago Gray House opened in the Windy City and appeared on Broadway earlier this year. The production, which wrapped in mid-summer and stars Tatiana Maslany, Paul Sparks and Laurie Metcalf, tells the story of a couple who take shelter during a snowstorm in a cabin inhabited by a mysterious old lady and her teenage girls. Millicent Simmonds and Sophia Anne Caruso were also on the bill.
Holloway, represented by CAA, was also part of the Steppenwolf Theater and co-founded Neverbird Project, a deaf and hearing youth theater project.
