Even as his box-office sensation Paranormal Activity left Saw IV struggling to find an audience in the pre-Halloween horror craze, director Oren Peli wasted no time in starting to shoot his next film, Area 51. Described as a sci-fi thriller, the new production is expected to have a $5 million budget, much heftier than the $11-15K Peli spent to make Paranormal Activity. Peli is currently filming in Utah and already has several studios lined up to acquire the rights.

Area 51 will tell the story of a group of teenagers who stumble upon an area in the Nevada desert known for hosting an alien encounter.

Paranormal Activity has expanded to 2500 screens in 1945 movie theaters over the past week, surpassing the similar horror success story Blair Witch Project (1999) and earning Paramount Pictures a record-breaking $61.6 million since its US release.