Office Paranormal?

Recently, I was directed to a potentially interesting project that is ramping up, Office Paranormal, and is in the process of potentially casting a stellar circle of acting talent. While not completely official, the casting includes Nicholas Cage, Mickey Rourke, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Haley Joel Osment, Christopher Walken, and Michael Madsen. A friend commented that the premise sounds like a knockoff of Ghostbusters, nevertheless, this sounds interesting and might reflect on the continuing market for Paranormal subjects, and while I suspect this has to do with the commercial success of Paranormal Activity, one has to wonder if the success of “The X-Files”, so many years back, was the template to illustrate that such subjects could be commercially marketable. Fittingly, this film is supposed to be released in 2012, a year that is considered an equinox for a lot of esoteric subjects.

Office Paranormal

I know almost nothing about the team of Joseph Guinan, and Chelsea Zotta, and I have to admit that Nic Cage’s commercial and critical track record has been hit and miss. Yet considering that Mickey Rourke has enjoyed such a successful streak as of late, it might be a good sign of Rourke’s involvement, in a sense, this is all Monday Night Quarterbacking on my part, so all one can do is be hopeful. I might as well come clean and admit to being a major advocate of actor Haley Joel Osment, since 1999, and his impressive turn in The Sixth Sense, and regard him as being deserving of the label given as one the best young actors of this past decade. Now that he has gone the Jodie Foster route, and graduated from NYU, I hope is able to make the successful transition as an adult actor.

I can’t really say if HJO might be able to maintain his commercial appeal as a lead actor, but I could see him as a solid, and excellent character actor, and Hollywood has had a rich tradition of supporting character actors whose careers are just as remembered and beloved as their known counterparts. After a phenomenal streak with The Sixth Sense, and A.I. – Artificial Intelligence, Haley dropped out of the limelight after 2003, to finish school and pursue NYU, and while he continued making smaller, independent films, most of these have yet to see the light of day, or have not been picked up by major distributors unfortunately. I suspect this is largely due to a shifting marketplace that hasn’t been friendly towards independents. For myself, it has been frustrating to watch Haley’s peers gain momentum, and this isn’t to take anything away from other acting talents, but there is no other young actor that matches his unique persona and talent, and none of his peers remind me of the great actors of the past, Jimmy Stewart, or Spencer Tracy.

So, I am naturally hoping, selfishly, that this film helps to put him back in the deserved limelight. We shall see.