French horror director focuses on "Details"

By Jay A. Fernandez and Borys Kit

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - French filmmaker Pascal Laugier, who freaked out audiences at the Cannes and Toronto festivals this year, is assembling a Hollywood career with scary efficiency.

Laugier will write and direct "Details," a supernatural thriller about a daughter who disappears after stirring up dark forces and the father obsessed with finding her. The Paramount Vantage project is based on a short story by British fantasy writer China Mieville.

He gained infamy with "Martyrs," which polarized festival audiences with its violence and psychological torture. The film quickly helped to score him the job of writing and directing a remake of Clive Barker's "Hellraiser" for Dimension Films.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter