‘Paranormal Activity 5’ Screenwriters Hired

It’s always weird when I’m reminded of a movie I had completely forgotten about only to see I had actually added it to my database five months ago. Today that movie is Almanac, a found footage film centered on time travel directed by Dean Israelite, but for the sake of this story, the more important detail is Paramount has hired Almanac screenwriters Andrew Stark and Jason Pagan to write the screenplay for Paranormal Activity 5, which is set to hit theaters on October 24, 2014 with the Latino-themed Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones arriving January 3.

The production on Paranormal 5 is interesting considering Paramount had originally planned on releasing what everyone thought was the fifth film in the franchise on October 25, but it turns out it was actually The Marked Ones planned for that date, but they eventually moved that film adding Jackass: Bad Grandpa into the slot.

I can’t help but wonder if the plan had always been to release The Marked Ones and not Paranormal Activity 5 or did the studio run into issues putting together the fifth installment? Because 2013 is now the first year since 2009 that we haven’t had a new Paranormal film. Considering the low budgets and the amount of money the films bring in I wouldn’t have thought Paramount would want to miss a step, but I guess the January date worked well for The Devil Inside so I expect they didn’t have a problem waiting a few months to count their profits. [THR]