Paramount Players’ newest installment in the “Paranormal Activity” franchise has found its lead cast, with Emily Bader, Roland Buck III, Dan Lippert and Henry Ayres-Brown joining the upcoming chapter, TheWrap has learned exclusively.
Will Eubank (“Underwater”) is directing from a script by Christopher Landon (“Happy Death Day”). Jason Blum is producing via Blumhouse, alongside Oren Peli, while Landon is executive producing along with Steven Schneider. It will debut on Paramount+.
The plot for the upcoming sequel is being kept under wraps. Paramount first teamed with Blum on the initial microbudget phenomenon in 2009, which went on to gross over $190M worldwide.
Created by Peli, who wrote, directed and shot the initial installment, the new “Paranormal” will be the first installment in the microbudget horror series since “Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension” in 2015. Known for their very low budgets — the original 2007 film was made on a $15,000 budget — the “Paranormal Activity” series was a lucrative franchise for Paramount but had future sequels temporarily shelved after “The Ghost Dimension” grossed only $78 million at the box office, down from a peak of $207 million for “Paranormal Activity 3” in 2011.
Bader has most recently starred in the TV shows “Broken Visions” and “Charmed,” and is currently in pre-production on a short called “Trust” by Diane Lansing. Buck has been a recurring character on “Chicago Med” and also starred in “Better Call Saul” and “College.”
Lippert has starred on shows like “The Grand Slams,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “American Princess,” and has most recently starred in three shorts; “Steel Cut Oats,” “Undead Life” and “An Opening.” And Ayres-Brown’s credits include “The Blacklist,” “The Deuce” and, most recently, “Monsterland.”
Lippert is repped by Jonathan Rakower of Framework Entertainment and Grace Kallis of Ginsburg Daniels Kallis; Buck is repped by A3 Artists Agency, Stewart Talent and Insight Entertainment; Bader is represented by Luber Roklin Entertainment and Ayres-Brown is repped by ICM and Untitled Entertainment.
For the record: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Roland Buck III’s management company due to a typographical error by his agency.