Platinum Dunes, the company owned by Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form has signed a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures - whom Bay has worked with on the "Transformers" movies. Now it's being reported that Platinum's next film will be "The Butcherhouse Chronicles", which is being described as "The Breakfast Club" in a haunted house. More details after the jump.

Since its inception, Platinum Dunes has predominantly been a production company that specializes in making genre pictures (typically horror) that have strong name recognition (typically remakes) and that are made at a relatively low cost. This system has brought decent financial success to Platinum Dunes with its "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Friday the 13th" releases, among others. Its newest addition to the remake canon "A Nightmare on Elm Street," starring Academy Award-nominated actor Jackie Earle Haley as the horror heavy Freddie Krueger, looks to continue the streak.

But according to Variety, Bay's plans for the future of Platinum Dunes under Paramount is to step outside the remake box, as well as the horror genre, and start to explore other low-cost high-excitement endeavors, such as action films. The key, though, is to maintain their low-cost approach. With this in mind, they will get underway with "The Butcherhouse Chronicles," a thriller they actually set at the studio last year, with Stephen Susco ("The Grudge") scripting a premise the producers call "The Breakfast Club in a haunted house." Platinum Dunes has also boarded the Paramount project "Property of the State," a Howard Franklin-scripted thriller about a young white-collar criminal whose attempt to straighten out his life is imperiled by an obsessive and menacing parole officer."  Remove the white-collar and that sounds suspiciously like 1978's "Straight Time".

Despite the flack that production companies have gotten with the seemingly endless list of horror remakes over the past decade, Platinum Dunes was one of the first to get the genre out of its long watered-down time of PG-13 obscurity, and has continued to keep with their gruesome R-Rated fare. Say what you will about the films but it's hard to argue that they had a big hand in re-establishing the popularity of horror film icons and introducing them to a new generation. As for the future of Platinum Dunes at Paramount, the possible attachment of Michael Bay's name to a modestly budgeted action movie is intriguing to say the least.