Considering that Rogue Pictures was content with bumping back writer-director Bryan Bertino's feature debut, The Strangers, countless times, only for it to turn around and gross a commendable $52 million, it seems appropriate that the studio throws the man a bone with a two-picture deal and seven figures for each.

Not too shabby, says I, and having enjoyed The Strangers, I take further comfort in knowing that the deal does not include a sequel to that film -- although I know that doesn't stop it from happening without him.

According to Variety, one is called Black, the other Alone, and besides that, precious little is known about either film (the former project is described by the trade publication as being "a character-driven thriller with supernatural elements." Alrighty then...) Bertino is simultaneously working on a third thriller called Green Eyes at Paramount. As with the other two, there isn't so much as an IMDb page to be found for it, although it is admittedly early on yet in the process for many details to leak out.

Regardless, I for one am looking forward to seeing the man dodge the sophomore slump. And you?

I've always loved movies that take place over a limited amount of time in a limited space, say over the course of a few hours or one day, in a specific neighborhood or building. Movies that take place over many years tend to skimp on the everyday details that really make a story, but when a filmmaker is forced to closely examine a specific space, those small things can come to life. (This excludes, of course, movies based on plays in which characters sit in a single room and talk.) These two extremes separate the men from the boys; anyone can blunder through an epic, lining up blocks of scenes one after the other like columns of marching ants, but it takes a real talent to find poetry in the mundane. While I can't say that the new thriller P2, which takes place entirely in a parking garage on Christmas Eve, is a shining example, it still has one or two worthwhile ideas, despite its clumsy flaws.

Newcomer director Franck Khalfoun, along with his more experienced co-writer and producer Alexandre Aja (director of High Tension and the remake of The Hills Have Eyes), makes wonderful use of the big New York City high rise with all its sinister safety precautions that eventually turn against our heroine. Angela (Rachel Nichols) is forced to work late into Christmas Eve, finishing up an important document. Late for a Christmas party at her sister's house, she heads down into the parking garage only to find that her car won't start. A friendly night watchman, Thomas (Wes Bentley), tries to help, but to no avail. She calls a cab, but finds that she can't actually exit the lobby of the building. The locks that are designed to keep people out over the holiday are actually keeping poor Angela inside.

Despite their great success with Pan's Labyrinth, which did pretty well in the U.S. for a foreign-language film, New Line apparently expects less of a mainstream reception for The Orphanage (El Orfanato). According to Variety, the studio is looking to remake the Spanish film, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona with supervision from Guillermo Del Toro, director of Pan's Labyrinth. Del Toro is actually on board to produce the English-language version, and if he's a good man, he'll make sure Bayona gets to redo his own work for a wider audience. Back when Picturehouse bought the distribution rights to The Orphanage, Del Toro said that Bayona's footage blew him away, so I can't imagine he'd prefer someone else to helm the remake. Of course, I'm shocked that he would be fine with the film being remade in the first place. If the original really is so good, there's no reason for an Americanized take on it. Knowing the way Hollywood works, though, it is more likely that another foreign filmmaker will make his English-language debut with this project, while Bayona will direct a remake of someone else's film (and so on).

Like many popular Spanish horror films, The Orphanage is a ghost story. Well, it features a supernatural imaginary friend, which sounds a lot like a ghost. The original, written by Sergio G. Sánchez, stars Bélen Rueda as a woman who returns to her childhood home with plans to turn it into an orphanage for disabled children. Unfortunately, her son gets a new imaginary friend, who just so happens to be the same imaginary friend that she had when she was a kid. And he terrorized her back then. Yep, sounds like he's actually a ghost. Last month, we shared the trailer with you, and while it didn't show much, it still had the promise of something truly creepy (did you see that scarecrow-faced kid?). Personally, I'd rather check it out as soon as possible than wait for the English-language version. Seriously, what's a few subtitles matter when you're being scared out of your wits? The original Orphanage played at Berlin and Cannes Film Festivals to good reviews, and it screens tonight at the Toronto Film Festival (from where our own Scott Weinberg is raving about it). Picturehouse, a partnership between New Line and HBO, is giving the film a limited release in December.

Real life husband and wife Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany have signed on to star in the psychological thriller Born, which will be directed by Daniel Simpson and produced by Guillermo del Toro, Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin and Clive Barker, in an exec producer role. I love it when a married couple decide to play opposite one another on the big screen, especially as lovers because it adds an extra layer of "real" to the whole thing. I just wish it wasn't Connelly; I've had a crush on her my entire life (probably the only reason I watched Career Opportunities more than ten times) and at one point was convinced she was waiting for me to get just a tad older before finally making her movie. Nevertheless, Bettany got there first. Damn him.

In the pic, both will play a married couple who are looking to settle down in a nice English town to raise a family. However, all hell breaks loose when Wallace and Gromit show up to wreak havoc. Okay, it's not exactly Wallace and Gromit, but Bettany's character is a claymation artist, and when his characters begin to act out a nightmare that actually comes to life, then that's when -- as they say -- the plot thickens. Simpson, who will make his directorial debut on Born after helming two shorts (one of which utilized claymation), wrote the script along with Barker and Paul Kaye. It will also mark the first project for the Los Angeles-based finance and production shingle ClearVision Media Production Group. Personally, I think it will be wild to watch live-action fused with creepy claymation -- I imagine not many feature films have explored that territory yet. Currently, there's no word on a production or release schedule; del Toro, Gordon and Levin are also hard at work on Hellboy II.

How did you first get into Grindhouse cinema? RR: "He's been educating me in Grindhouse cinema for the past twelve years, showing me all these double features and triple features at his house -- either stuff he'd already seen in the theater back when he was growing up, or stuff he'd discovered, that he turned me on to. Didn't really think to do anything with it, because I'm kind of slow, then about three years ago I started thinking 'wouldn't it be cool to do a double feature?' Because I just finished a 3-D movie, and I was trying to think of something else that would bring people to theaters for a theatrical experience. I went crazy with that idea for a few months, then got sidetracked and did Sin City, then I went to show him my cut I did of his scene in Sin City. I went to his house, and laying on the floor with a bunch of other junk was a double bill poster for Rock All Night and Dragstrip Girl, which was the same one I had at my house, on my floor.

That was inspiration for my double feature, just the layout of it. I said 'I've got that same poster, and it's on my floor! I had this idea I was crazy about, I was gonna make two short features, but you should do one and I'll do the other one,' and he said 'Oh, I love double features -- we gotta call it Grindhouse!' and I said 'allright!' Then later he came up with the idea for the fake trailers. When he does show a double feature at his house, he always puts trailers in between -- it wouldn't be a complete experience without them."

"All the characters in this book are fictitious, and anyone finding a resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, should proceed no further ..." Disclaimer from the novel 'The Number 23.' Sadly no such disclaimer was given to the beginning of this film, which could serve as a warning to people who might be wanting those two hours from their lives back, should they ignore it and watch the film. Okay, that might be a bit harsh, but not by too much. This film reunites director Joel Schumacher with star Jim Carrey, who both worked over-the-top together in 1995's Batman Forever. Oddly enough (although unrelated) that was the same year that gave us Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. It would still be a few more years, three to be exact, until we would start to see the serious side of Jim Carrey, in 1998's The Truman Show. Since then he's dabbled in more dramatic roles in films like Simon Birch, The Majestic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and arguably Man on the Moon, but he has never really managed to capture audiences when he plays a dramatic role the same way he does when he's in a comedy.

In fact, Bruce Almighty grossed more than those four films combined. So, with all that in mind, it might seem strange that Carrey would turn to a much darker role in a thriller like The Number 23. Although on paper the film actually sounds intriguing: a happily married man with a teenage son starts to become unraveled by a mysterious novel his wife gives him one day. It taps into a hidden obsession that some people have with "The 23 Enigma," and he soon becomes obsessed with it. He is also convinced that the book is actually written about him, and that somehow the author used his life as a template for the book. In some of the particularly darker scenes in the film, Walter (Carrey) imagines himself as the main character, Detective Fingerling, in the novel, and his wife Agatha (Virginia Madsen) as the dark and sexy Fabrizia, his love interest. His wife's friend and academic Isaac (Danny Huston) who tells Walter about the 23 enigma is also cast in his dark fantasies as psychologist Dr. Miles Phoenix.