Paranormal Activity 2: still no director?

With its October release date getting ever closer, and a need to get before the cameras in May at the latest, Paramount is shortly going to have to sort out its choice of director on its unpromising Paranormal Activity sequel. The film is being rushed into cinemas to go head to head with Saw 7/3D this Halloween, and after its original choice of director, Kevin Greutert, was yanked back to the Saw movie instead, there's been no formal sign of an appointment.

Perhaps most interestingly, Brian De Palma was linked with the director's chair a week or two ago, as was Akiva Goldsman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of A Beautiful Mind (he's also got the script for Batman & Robin on his CV too. We're sure he likes to be reminded of that).

In fact, reports yesterday suggested that Goldsman had signed up to make his directorial debut on the film (and he couldn't have picked a more poisoned chalice, from where we're sitting). As it turns out, that's not the case, and Deadline Hollywood has now revealed that he's signed up to be its executive producer instead. Not that the project was short of those, we should point out. Given that Goldsman was emerging as some kind of front-runner, we're curious as to where Paramount will turn its attention next.

The search continues, and we'd remain genuinely shocked if De Palma signed on the dotted line. In the interim, here's the Deadline Hollywood piece.