Carter B. Smith boards "The Ruins"

No, no, no. Listen KJ, the only similarity between Turistas and The ruins is the setting, and the idea of using American vacationers as a plot device. Also Scott Smith is not just writing the book, he wrote the screen play as well. This guy is no slouch. Many may not remember, but he was nominated for an academy award for Best Adapted screenplay for A Simple Plan. This movie is going to be far from your standard horror movie. So don't dismiss it quite yet.

No, no, no. Listen KJ, the only similarity between Turistas and The ruins is the setting, and the idea of using American vacationers as a plot device. Also Scott Smith is not just writing the book, he wrote the screen play as well. This guy is no slouch. Many may not remember, but he was nominated for an academy award for Best Adapted screenplay for A Simple Plan. This movie is going to be far from your standard horror movie. So don't dismiss it quite yet.

I don`t want to dismiss this but it is hard not too, when you mention horror, american tourists, Cancun, and lost in jungle in the synopsis. I just think Hostel, in the Jungles. It just rings of crappy, see before horror flick, but I hope that I am proved wrong.

I think Karl missed a very critical bit of information. The Ruins will be based on Scott Smith's best selling horror novel of the same name. This is the same author who wrote the novel A Simple Plan, which Raimi turned into a pretty good movie. The story is very dark, and - if interpreted well - would make a movie closer to The Descent than Turistas. If done with the right director and screenwriter (maybe get Smith to adapt his own story, as he did with A Simple Plan) and this could be a fine horror/suspense movie. Or they could hire some hacks and turn it into Turistas 2. But ask yourself - what incentive would the studio have to do that? Turistas only made $7M domestically. If anything, I'd think the studio will want to take pains to distance The Ruins from Turistas.

if you're going to do a take shouldn't you do a little research into the subject? there's a lot of places that talk about this book.

The movie sounds like any other recent horror films, but maybe it will actually be good. One suggestion is since Ben Stiller's production is behind this film, maybe they can get him a role and then torture and dismember him in first ten minutes. Than this movie would be awsome.

ponyboy76...I think what your not getting about the horror part, is the horror of being lost in a vast jungle and all the possable things that can take place in that jungle, like vicious animals, poisonous insects and the mental anguish of being lost and what not...that's what I am getting from this, of course I could be wrong and I usualy am...lol...Is this based on a book?

Yes, it's based on a book, The Ruins by Scott Smith.

Here's a synopsis of the book: By the way he's an awesome writer who took a twelve year break. You really need to read "A Simple Plan" From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. At long last, Smith follows up his bestselling first novel, A Simple Plan (1993), the film of which received an Oscar nomination for best screenplay, with a stunning horror thriller. Four American friends on vacation in Cancún, Mexico—Jeff, Amy, Eric and Stacy—meet a German tourist, Mathias, who persuades them to join his hunt for his younger brother, Henrich, last seen headed off with a new girlfriend toward some ruins. The four soon regret their impulsive decision after they find themselves lost in the jungle and freaked out by signs that they're headed for danger. Smith builds suspense through the slow accretion of telling details, until a deadly menace starts taking its toll, leaving the survivors increasingly at each other's throats. While admirers of such classic genre writers as John Wyndham or Algernon Blackwood may find the horror less suggestive than they might wish, the eerie atmosphere and compelling plot should appeal to fans of ABC's hit TV series Lost, who will help propel this page-turner up bestseller lists. Ben Stiller's production company has bought film rights. 100,000 first printing. (July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Okay the book is NOTHING like Turistas or the spate of other horror movies out there. Unfortunately, I also thought the, let's say, antagonist pretty cliche as in scifi channel tv movie cliche. It's just really really easy to turn this into one of those in a heartbeat if they're not careful. And furthermore I hope they keep the ending. Or else It's seriously going to end up in the scifi channel in a hurry. If they do it right, it would probably be more in line with DESCENT in terms of tone.