Following onfrom the hugely successful 2004 horror hit Saw, Twisted Pictures and Lions Gate Filmsannounced yesterday (Mar 1) that the first project in their nine-picture dealwill be called Catacombs.

Principal photography is set to start in Bucharest,Romania, on Mar 7 on the project, which stars Shannyn Sossamon and Alecia Moore- aka Pink - and is co-written and co-directed by David Elliot and Tomm Coker.

TwistedPictures' Mark Burg, Oren Koules, and Gregg Hoffman are producing and PeterBlock, Lions Gate's president of acquisitions, television and co-productions,and Jason Constantine, senior vice president of acquisitions, will overseeproduction for the studio. Lions Gate is handling worldwide distribution.

Catacombs tells the story of a young tourist whobecomes separated from her friends during a party in the Paris catacombs andstarts to believe she is being pursued by a terrifying adversary.

Catacombs was brought to Twisted Pictures by FordGilmore of Illuminati Entertainment and Chad Cole of Evolution Entertainment.

Jeff Frankel of Colden, McKuin and Frankel negotiated thedeal on behalf of Elliot and Coker, with David Fox and Leslie Abell of Myman,Abell, Fineman, Greenspan & Light representing Twisted Pictures.

Twisted, thegenre division of Evolution Entertainment, produced Saw for $1.2m and the picture has gone on togross close to $100m worldwide through Lions Gate.

Under the nine picture deal,Twisted Pictures will finance and produce titles exclusively in the horror andaction genres.

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