ABC may not have seen success with their found-footage horror series The River, with the drama eventually being passed over for a renewal after its first season, but it looks like MTV is taking a shot at the format with their own project, and The River executive producer Jason Blum, who's also among the producers for the Paranormal Activity films is involved.
According to THR, MTV is developing an hour-long found-footage mystery project that's described as "in the style of Paranormal Activity. Titled The Experiment, the scripted pilot comes from a story by Brian Horiuchi and Miguel Sapochnik. Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions is executive producing along with Naomi Despres. Horiuchi will write the pilot, with Sapochnik set to direct.
Beyond the intriguing sounding title, there are no specifics given on the nature of the story other than that it's a "found-footage mystery," but that alone is cause for interest, especially when factoring in Blum's involvement. The River may not have lasted, but it was a decent show. Assuming they're aiming at a younger audience with The Experiment, to match MTV's other series on that level, there's definite potential here for something worth watching. And with Teen Wolf's recent third season renewal, it's clear MTV has an audience for horror-dramas. It's also worth mentioning Project X as a recent example of a found-footage movie targeted specifically for teens/young adults, though without the horror element (unless you count what happened to that house). Perhaps if MTV decides to take this project past the pilot stage, it'll have better success than ABC's The River did.
It should be interesting to see what becomes of this project and whether or not MTV decides to give it a series order once the pilot is done.
