It took producer/director William Castle's 1959 horror classic HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL exactly forty years to receive the remake treatment, as Warner Bros. released director William Malone's take on the concept in 1999, but for the second time around Warner Bros. is looking to cut that time in half.
Yesterday, it was announced that PROJECT ALMANAC and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSION scribes Jason Harry Pagan and Andrew Deutschman are working with Amblin on a project called UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENON, and buried within Deadline's report on this news was the revelation that Pagan and Deutschman are also currently scripting a second HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL remake for Warner Bros.
The original HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL starred Vincent Price and told the following story:
Five guests are invited to a haunted house party by millionaire playboy Frederick Loren and his glamorous but scheming wife Annabelle. The plot unfolds to reveal the manipulative couple have turned the party into a contest, as each guest is offered $10,000 to spend just one night in "the only truly haunted house in the world".
The 1999 remake had the same basic set-up, with the prize being upped from $10,000 to $1 million, but the story played out in a different way and delved further into the history of the mansion, which was once an asylum where terrible things happened.
We'll have to wait and see what sort of haunted house story Pagan and Deutschman are crafting for their version of HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL. We'll keep you updated as we learn more about this project.