Mark Pellington, the man who helmed both "Arlington Road" and "The Mothman Prophecies," has been tabbed to direct "The Orphanage," an English-language remake of a Spanish horror film, which is being produced and written by Guillermo Del Toro.
Larry Fessenden had been chosen last summer to direct the film, but in Novemebr he told Arrow in the Head that he was out. News of Pellington's hiring comes from Variety.
The original, "El Orfanato," directed by Juan Antonio Bayona in 2007, is about a woman who takes over the same orphanage where she herself grew up as a child, only to find that the place is crawling with bad craziness. It was "good old-fashioned ghost story had some of the best atmospheric scares and creepy suspense seen in a supernatural yarn for a long time," according to Horrorphile.com, who named it the No. 2 on their Bloody Best of 2008. Del Toro served as producer on the original, as well.
It was announced last year that Bayona would make his English-language debut with Hater for Universal (a beloved member of the NBC family). The film, based on the 2006 novel by David Moody of the same name about a wave of violence that sweeps across through otherwise ordinary citizens. Guillermo Del Tor is serving as a producer on this one as well.
