Senator International presidentJoe Drake announced today (Feb 14) that the genre production label created inApril 2002 between Sam Raimi, Rob Tappert and Senator is to be called GhostHouse Pictures. The company's first feature, the classic horror story, Boogeyman, will be directed by Mehdi Norowzian, who receivedan Oscar nomination in 2000 for his short film, Killing Joe, and is due to begin principal photography in May inNew Zealand.

Raimi and Tappert will produce the picture from a script by EricKripke, Juliet Snowden and Stiles White. Steve Hein and Gary Bryman will serveas executive producers. Norowzian also directed the 2002 drama Leo, starring Joseph Fiennes, Sam Shepard and ElisabethShue.

Boogeyman, which did a roaring trade in international sales atMIFED last year, centres on a traumatised young man who returns to hischildhood home to confront a monstrous entity that may or may not be real. Asecond project, 30 Days of Night,will be based on a comic book series acquired from writer Steve Niles,illustrator Ben Templesmith and comic book publisher, Idea & Design Works.Ghost House will focus exclusively on horror, sci-fi and fantasy projects.

Senator International willfully finance and handle worldwide rights to all pictures produced by GhostHouse with Senator's executive vice president of motion pictures Nathan Kahaneand creative executive Jim Miller overseeing the daily creative operations.Michael Kirk, who worked with Raimi on Spider-Man, has been appointed creative executive at thecompany. All pictures will fall within the horror, sci-fi and fantasy genres.