New Line/Warner Bros. has hired Mark Pellington to direct the English-language remake of The Orphanage.
Guillermo del Toro and ContraFilm’s Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson will produce the redo of the Juan Antonio Bayona-directed Spanish film. Larry Fessenden and Del Toro wrote the script for the new version.
The original centers on Laura (Belén Rueda) who purchases her beloved childhood orphanage with dreams of restoring and reopening the long abandoned facility as a place for disabled children. Once there, Laura discovers that the new environment awakens her son’s imagination, but the ongoing fantasy games he plays with an invisible friend quickly turn into something more disturbing. Upon seeing her family increasingly threatened by the strange occurrences in the house, Laura looks to a group of parapsychologists for help in unraveling the mystery that has taken over the place.
Pellington’s credits include Henry Poole Is Here, The Mothman Prophecies, Arlington Road and U2 3D.
