Juliet Snowden and Stiles White (Knowing) have been tapped to rewrite and direct Universal’s low-budget adaptation of the board game Ouija.  The project was originally intended as one of Universal’s tent poles based on Hasbro properties, but dumped all of them when it was clear that Battleship was going to sink at the box office.  Hasbro was then able to retool the project with a $5 million budget, and Universal picked it back up with Paranormal Activity producer Jason Blum on board.  Michael Bay will also produce through his Platinum Dunes banner along with partners Andrew Form and Brad Fuller.

Variety has no details on what Snowden and White are intending for the adaptation beyond a thriller involving the infamous board that supposedly connects to a supernatural dimension that functions like Yahoo! Answers.  Universal plans to release the film next year.  Ouija will be the directing debut for Snowden and White.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is set to star in the horror-thriller Dibbuk Box for Lionsgate and Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures.  Lionsgate has already set the film’s release for October 28th, a Halloween weekend now absent their Saw franchise.  Danish director Ole Bornedal (The Substitute) will direct a script by Juliet Snowden and Stiles White based on true events.  According to Variety,

“Morgan will star as a recently divorced father whose youngest daughter becomes strangely connected to an antique wooden box she purchased at a yard sale. As his daughter’s behavior becomes more erratic, the father senses a dark presence building until he discovers that the box was built to contain a dibbuk — a dislocated spirit that inhabits and ultimately devours its human host.”

While many folks probably don’t know what a Dibbuk is (unless they saw A Serious Man), I suppose Dibbuk Box is a better title than Yard Sale Ghost.

They’re here…It seems there’s some forward momentum on MGM’s remake of Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper’s 1982 haunting classic, “Poltergeist”. “House of Sand and Fog” director Vadim Perelman is slated to direct a script by Juliet Snowden and Stiles White, which tells the tale of a suburban family beset by ghouls, ghosts, and little-girl-eating-televisions after finding out their home was built over sacred burial lands. The clown scene alone makes me wonder if it’s possible to top the original. Read on for musings on death, the afterlife, and scary-as-hell living dolls after the jump.