A Damsel in Distress; Analeigh Tipton Comes Under Attack in Joost/Schulman’s “Viral”

Only a couple of weeks after landing their directing team in Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, the formerly titled “Peste” has according to Variety secured it’s lead in Analeigh Tipton for Viral. Blumhouse Productions’ Jason Blum, Chapter One Films’ Matt Kaplan and Busted Shark’s Sherryl Clark are producing the Dimension Films thriller which will probably get released sometime in 2015.

Gist: Written by Barbara Marshall with rewrites by Christopher Landon (Paranormal Activity 3) , this follows Emma Drakeford, struggling after a recent family tragedy, who begins a video documentary about her life for a school project. But when their county succumbs to the spread of a parasitic virus, they’re put to the test to survive a city-wide quarantine.

Worth Noting: Analeigh Tipton is currently padding her indie film resume with upcoming parts in Charles-Olivier Michaud’s 4 Minute Mile, Max Nichols’ Two Night Stand, and the highly anticipated Mississippi Grind – team Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck’s fourth feature film.

Do We Care?: These apocalypse pandemic subgenre category of film usually suffers from an anemic design, with upcoming zombie comedy Life After Beth being a recent textbook example of just how one noted the affair can be. Perhaps the Catfish duo might bring their lo-fi aesthetic and amplify fright factor.