In 1976, director Richard Donner's supernatural thriller The Omen introduced Damien, a.k.a. the Devil's son, to frightened audiences everywhere. For the film's 30th anniversary, 20th Century Fox opted to remake the horror classic with John Moore at the helm, and Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles taking the brunt of the antichrist's tantrums. Currently, A&E is airing Damien, a series inspired by The Omen that sees the title character all grown up and dealing with the realization of his true nature. Now, it seems a prequel movie to The Omen is also in the works. Everybody loves The Omen!

As THR reports, Fox is developing The First Omen, but any plot details beyond that are non-existent. Ben Jacoby (Bleed) wrote the script and David Goyer will produce through his Phantom Four banner. The original movie eventually spawned two sequels and a book series, but to my knowledge the franchise has yet to explore the origins before Damien's portentous arrival. I won't write this film off before it's even gotten underway since there's some story to mine here, but it's going to be tough to top the Oscar-winning original.

One item of interest to those of you who have no love for prequels is that indie director Antonio Campos is in negotiations to helm the supernatural thriller for Fox. In addition to his work as a producer on such films as Martha Marcy May Marlene, Campos wrote and directed the 2012 thriller Simon Killer as well as this year's Christine. That latter film, which appeared at Sundance and will open in theaters this October, is a biographical drama of TV anchor Christine Chubbuck; you might think that this project isn't in lockstep with Campos' other thriller/horror credits but the real-life story of Chubbuck is rather horrific and disturbing, without giving too much away. You can read our own Matt Goldberg's Sundance review here.