Three Directorial Candidates for OUIJA; Thanksgiving 2012 Release Planned

According to Deadline, Ouija, the film based on the Hasbro game popular among youth and cult worshipers alike, has three chief candidates vying for the director’s chair: The Losers director Sylvain White, Taken director Pierre Morel (which we reported on here), and Priest helmer Scott Stewart. A winner is suspected to emerge within the next couple weeks.

Ouija is one of three upcoming tentpole films with its origins stemming from a Hasbro product, with Peter Berg’s Battleship – which recently scored Liam Neeson as a Navy admiral – set for a May 18^th, 2012 release and Rob Letterman’s Stretch Armstrong – with Taylor Lautner attached to star - likely to go before lenses sometime in 2013. Ouija is penciled in for a Thanksgiving 2012 release. Hasbro and Platinum Dunes will be co-financing the picture with Universal.  Info on the Ouija Board and my thoughts on the candidates after the jump.

From Wikipedia:

“A Ouija board, also known as a spirit board or talking board, is a flat board marked with letters, numbers, and other symbols, supposedly used to communicate with spirits. It uses a planchette (small heart-shaped piece of wood) or movable indicator to indicate the spirit’s message by spelling it out on the board during a séance. The fingers of the séance participants are placed on the planchette, which then moves about the board to spell out messages.”

Scribes Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (Tron: Legacy) are reportedly conceiving Ouija as an action-adventure, which supports the claim that the budget is in the ballpark of $80-100 million and sheds light on Universal’s shortlist. With Morel possibly taking on a re-adaptation of Dune and Stewart’s Priest in theaters May 13^th, 2011, I’m betting their familiarity with setting action in front of a spiritual/sci-fi backdrop puts them ahead of White in the poles. The choice of genre itself seems unorthodox given the subject material and the Paranormal Activity flicks have already covered the ground I would have expected a Ouija movie to, but I’m always game for something fresh.

The question is…does anyone care about a Ouija movie?