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'Paranormal's' Peli on Real Ghosts, Spooking Spielberg
"We kept the detergent on a shelf, pushed back to the wall. In the middle of the night, it just fell off."
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It’s perhaps the most anticipated head-to-head competition in Oscar history.
Kathryn Bigelow’s low-budget indie war film, “The Hurt Locker,” and James Cameron’s 3D mega-blockbuster “Avatar,” both nominated for nine Oscars Tuesday, are going directly against one another for Director and Best Picture, among other categories.
Oh, and of course, Bigelow and Cameron used to be married.
Which film is going to win the big Best Picture prize on March 7?
TheWrap breaks down the competition.
There's nothing like the power of a hit movie. Even when you're talking about real-life ghosts.
By cleaning up at the box office, Oren Peli's low-budget horror sleeper "Paranormal Activity" may have permanently scared off something paranormal in his own life.
Peli first got the idea for "Paranormal" after a series of strange occurrences started happening in his San Diego home.
"I never thought the house was haunted, I was just conscious of every little noise and creak," he told TheWrap. "But one weird thing that happened was that we kept the laundry detergent on a shelf, pushed back all the way back to the wall. One time, in the middle of the night, it fell off the shelf -- but it was nowhere near the edge.
"It made me think of the concept of setting up a video camera, and reviewing footage ... and what if you saw something?"
Lately, such inexplicable happenings have stopped. Still, he remains doubtful that, like the two youthful protagonists in his film who are terrorized by a demon, he was being visited by something otherworldly.
"If I was provided with hardcore evidence, I might change my mind," Peli said. "There might be something invisible. The prospect is scary, it’s terrifying. I'm more of a theological person, though. I tend not to believe."
While basking in his debut film's astounding grass-roots success -- "Paranormal" earned $7 million-plus in fewer than 200 theaters last weekend alone -- the 39-year-old director said he's "not even really conscious. It's so overwhelming -- I'm just so thankful to the fans for this."
Indeed, in keeping with the canny marketing campaign that has effectively built up anticipation for the film with a slow rollout in college towns, Peli said it was fan enthusiasm that ensured his long-shelved film finally saw the light of day.
Completed in 2007, the movie was originally picked up by DreamWorks, but it got caught up in the dissolution of the partnership between that studio and Paramount.
He said he was often unsure if his movie would be released theatrically, if it would get remade (which was DreamWorks' original plan) or if it would end up on the dust heap along with other properties orphaned in the wake of the messy breakup.
But the film picked up good buzz on the festival circuit.
It also was helped along tremendously by a story that Steven Spielberg became convinced the DVD of "Paranormal" was haunted after he screened it in his own home.
Although it smacks of being spun from Hollywood's PR machine, Peli maintains the story isn't apocryphal.
"I heard the story more than a year and half ago, so I think it's true," Peli said. "Nobody back then even knew about the movie, so I don't see them coming up with a publicity stunt. Apparently, after [Spielberg] watched it, the door to his bedroom was locked from the inside.
