Who better to adapt a story by one of the creepiest writers of all time than director Oren Peli, who creeped out audiences a couple years ago with the critically acclaimed (and highly profitable) Paranormal Activity?  According to Variety, Peli has signed on to helm Eliza Graves which is based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, or as we know him, the creator of eerie.  Variety reports that the classic Poe tale enters on "a Harvard Medical School graduate who takes a job at an insane asylum, unaware of the fact that it has been taken over by its occupants."

Hit the jump to learn about which high profile thespians were the first ones interested in the project as well as other Poe-related work that's in the pipeline.

Interestingly enough, the director’s chair of Graves was originally sought after by Jodie Foster. The project also caught the attention of Ian McKellanand Natalie Portman within the past decade.

Peli is following the success of Paranormal Activity with an upcoming alien thriller appropriately titled Area 51.  Peli served as a producer-only on Paranormal Activity 2.

It seems Edgar Allen Poe projects are all the rage right now.  Director James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) is currently working on The Raven, which is centers on a detective (played by Luke Evans) who partners with Poe (John Cusack) to search for a serial killer who has kidnapped the author’s fiancé (She's Out of My League's Alice Eve) and has gone on a murders spree that mimics the author’s work."

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