The trend of horror short films being acquired to be expanded into features continues with director Nico van den Brink's Dutch short THE BURDEN, and two major genre directors are teaming up to help bring this one to the screen. JS Entertainment and Starlight Media have acquired the feature rights to THE BURDEN and the film will be produced by James Wan through his company Atomic Monster and by Sam Raimi through his company Ghost House Pictures.
Atomic Monster's Michael Clear and Ghost House's Rob Tapert will also be producing the film. Judson Scott will be overseeing the project for Atomic Monster while Romel Adam will do the same for Ghost House.
Nico van den Brink will be directing the feature expansion of his short, which he also wrote. The short film was about
a young woman visiting her boyfriend’s family home. There, she learns about a sinister history with his creepy neighbor and soon, all kinds of skeletons come out of the closet.
NL Film en TV financed and produced the short, and are also on board to produce the feature version.
The producers are currently searching for a screenwriter.
This is the second collaboration for van den Brink and Atomic Monster; the director and the production company are also working on a feature version of van den Brink's short SWEET TOOTH for New Line Cinema.
I will be keeping a close eye on THE BURDEN as it moves forward, as I'm very interested to see what a movie produced by both Wan and Raimi is going to be like.