Ever since those stupid kids decided to hike through the Blair Witch's woods, Hollywood has had a serious infatuation with "found-footage" movies. It's understandable. The handheld "you are there" nature of these movies adds a certain visceral nature, and even when you know the backstory is bunk, it's fun to let your brain consider what if that "Based on Real Events" tag was actually true. With the ongoing success of the Paranormal Activity franchise, you can bet this isn't a movie style that's going to be put out to pasture anytime soon. Now another entry has entered the fray: Deadline reports that New Line Cinema has picked up Category Six, a found-footage natural disaster movie spec script about a devastating tornado.
New Line paid screenwriter John Swetnam around $300,000 for the script. Category Six is told through handheld video camera and cell phone footage as several high school students try to survive the worst tornado in U.S. history. The concept for the film was apparently conjured up by Todd Garner of Broken Road, who will serve as producer. Newcomer Swetnam has been busy lately, with two other movies in the works: the thrillers Hide and Seek and Evidence.
It'll be interesting to see a found-footage flick that isn't relying on ghosts or aliens to fuel the storyline, but having grown up in the heart of tornado alley, I'll be interested to see how Category Six manages to stretch this concept to an hour and a half. Unlike hurricanes, tornados don't really pound on one spot for very long; they plow over the top of you and move on down the block (usually to the nearest trailer park). In order for the story to last more than 10 minutes, I'm guessing there will have to be a lot of set up or it will have to follow multiple groups of people scattered out along the tornado's route.
