The great thing about indie film projects is how often they die off only to be resurrected a few years later under a whole new set of circumstances. Case-in-point: ELIZA GRAVES, an adaptation of the Edgar Allen Poe short comedic story “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether,” was originally going to be Oren Peli’s directorial follow-up to PARANORMAL ACTIVITY under the umbrella of Mel Gibson’s Icon Pictures. Now, the film is starting all over again with THE MACHINIST director Brad Anderson set to helm.
Millenium Films have acquired the rights to produce the thriller on behalf of Icon. Oren Peli’s Sebini Pictures are also hanging on as producers, while David Higgins, Christa Campbell and Lati Grobman will be executive producing.
The screenplay by Joseph Gangemi is said to involve a new physician who arrives to apprentice at a mental institution where he falls in love with a patient under circumstances that are more complicated than they seem. However, the previous synopsis describes the story as centered on a Harvard Medical School graduate who takes a job at an insane asylum, unaware of the fact that it has been taken over by its occupants. Gangemi originally penned the script as an episode of FEAR ITSELF, which Anderson also directed an episode of.
Though premise sounds more than a bit like that of the 1973 flick DON’T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT, I’m sure it will be nothing short of awesome with Brad Anderson directing. Stay tuned here for further ELIZA GRAVES updates and talk back below with your thoughts on the project.