For a brief moment, it seemed as if Charlize Theron was going to be struck hard by the Oscar curse. Following “Monster,” she hit a bit of rough patch. Yes, she was nominated for “North Country” but the film didn’t exactly make waves with audiences. “Æon Flux” was nothing short of a disaster, and “In The Valley Of Elah” and “Battle In Seattle” weren’t quite received as well as the filmmakers might have hoped. However, the actress is set to make a big leap back into public view. Later this year she’ll make another run at Oscar with a starring role in Jason Reitman‘s “Young Adult” and 2012 finds her back in tentpole territory with two mega projects: Ridley Scott‘s “Prometheus” and the fairy tale movie “Snow White And The Huntsman.” So forgive us if we think the actress can do much better than a tread through horror remake territory.
Last summer, Theron’s production company Denver & Delilah snatched up the rights to the Dutch horror flick “Zwart Water” (known internationally under the much less zingy title “Two Eyes Staring“) for the remake treatment. And now it has a director. THR reports that the thoroughly underwhelming “Exorcism of Emily Rose” helmer Scott Derrickson will tackle the film that tells the story of a nine-year-old girl who discovers her sinister new friend is the ghost of the dead twin of her mother (got that?). Her father also begins to suspect his wife of hiding a terrible secret, resulting in deadly consequences. Theron will play the creepy Mom.
No word yet on when this roll, but we presume it won’t be until some time next year. Theron is busy on ‘Huntsman’ and will soon be headed out on what is likely to be an extensive press campaign for “Young Adult.” The project is set up over at Summit where Derrickson is a familiar face, as he’s also making the thriller “Sinister” with Ethan Hawke. He was also attached to direct a David and Goliath film for Relativity earlier this year in what was said to be a “300“-esque take on the Biblical tale. But hopefully this Theron project will keep him from doing that. It’s the lesser of two evils.