Paramount Lands Alien Home Invasion Thriller ‘Intruders’
An alien invasion thriller in the vein of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1997) and the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter has been snatched up by Paramount. Intruders, a script by James V. Simpson (Armored, 2009), will be produced by Dan Farah and Roy Lee, whose studio has recently found success with IT.
News of the deal comes after the premier of Ready Player One, also produced by Farah. Paramount production president Liz Raposo will oversee the project for the studio and it is hoped that it will lead to a franchise.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
If this news sound familiar, it might be because Intruders isn’t the only movie of this nature in the pipeline. Earlier this month, Blumhouse acquired the rights to The Invasion, which will tell the story of a home invasion that happens during a wider alien attack on Earth.
Alien home invasion is hardly new to Hollywood; the concept was famously touched upon in the M. Night Shyamalan’s 2002 sci-fi hit Signs. Long-time horror fans might also remember the earlier Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (also known in some markets as The McPherson Tape). This found-footage pseudo-documentary showed a small, rural family defending their home against sinister extraterrestrial beings in the dead of the night. It generated a fair amount of controversy during its initial telecast, with some American audiences believing it to be completely real. If that surprises you, remember that in 1998 it was a bit harder to Google things and we were all a bit naive!