One of the more underrated horror-thrillers is Warner Bros./Dark Castle’s 2009 Orphan, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and starring a young Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther, an adopted 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be.

As it’s revealed, “Esther is actually a 33-year-old woman named Leena Klammer. She has hypopituitarism, a rare hormonal disorder that stunted her physical growth and caused proportional dwarfism, and has spent most of her life posing as a little girl.” (Wiki)

In an interesting turn, Sierra/Affinity is launching sales at the EFM in Berlin on Esther, a prequel to Orphan that will be directed by William Brent Bell (The Devil Inside, The Boy, Brahms: The Boy II), reports Deadline.

In it, “Lena Klammer orchestrates a brilliant escape from a Russian psychiatric facility and travels to America by impersonating the missing daughter of a wealthy family. But Lena’s new life as “Esther” comes with an unexpected wrinkle and pits her against a mother who will protect her family at any cost.”

Orphan‘s big selling point was the shocking twist that changed the way you viewed the intense and immensely uncomfortable events of the film. It will be interesting to see if the prequel can conjure up the same kind of suspense with the audience already being in on the Esther’s secret. It’s unclear if Fuhrman will return, although it’s extremely unlikely.

The prequel, expected to start in the third quarter, is written by David Coggeshall.

Dark Castle Entertainment’s Alex Mace, Hal Sadoff and Ethan Erwin will produce with James Tomlinson. David Leslie Johnson will serve as an executive producer and Jen Gorton and Josie Liang will oversee for eOne.