Here's a piece of news that I just can't wrap my head around. The Weinstein Company announced yesterday that they are developing a new sequel to AMITYVILLE HORROR. Here's my favorite part of this news tidbit: the film is the first of many to be made under a new agreement with Miramax and The Weinstein Company to create sequels to some of Miramax's most popular films. Basically, instead of creating new and original content, they're just going to go back to successful money-making properties and tweak them a little bit. The most perplexing thing to me about this whole thing is that the last sequel to AMITYVILLE HORROR was made in 1983 (disregarding the remake, of course).

The first up in this new endeavor is AMITYVILLE HORROR: THE LOST TAPES, which will fall under the super-popular new style of found footage horror films. The film's screenplay was written by Casey La Scala and Daniel Farrands who will also be directing the film. La Scala's only directing credit is 2003's GRIND and Farrands has actually directed documentaries about popular horror franchises such as the documentaries NEVER SLEEP AGAIN about the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series and SCREAM: THE INSIDE STORY.

According to the press release, THE LOST TAPES will be about the events after the time of the original THE AMITYVILLE HORROR book and movie through found footage dating back to 1976: "An ambitious female television news intern, on the verge of breaking the most famous haunted house case in the world, leads a team of journalists, clergymen and paranormal researchers into an investigation of the bizarre events that will come to be known as The Amityville Horror...only to unwittingly open a door to the unreal that she may never be able to close."

The film is supposed to start production this summer and be released on January 27, 2012.

Source Press Release