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Pretty boy Ian Somerhalder, perhaps best known for his work in The Vampire Diaries and Lost, has joined the cast of the “romantic gothic fairy tale” Cradlewood.

According to THR:

“The movie centers on an Australian woman living in Boston with the heir (Somerhalder) to an incredible fortune whose family history is swirled in a legend that tells of a pact made with a demon which ensures that whenever a boy is born into the family, the father is killed.

The heir suspects his girlfriend is pregnant, and after strange events occur, he comes to believe he will die if he continues to fall in love.”

The film will be directed by Harry Weinmann, who did the visual effects for Spaceballs and was on the art department for Race to Witch Mountain. In other words, he’s relatively unproven, even after more than 20 years in the field. Weinmann created the story that writers Stephen Sewell and John Paul Chapple drafted.

Producer Michel Shane said about the film:

“We see this is as almost like an American-style Pan’s Labyrinth in look and feel,” Shane said. “It’s a perfect segue for the kids who have outgrown Twilight but want something romantic and scary. Our monster will be quite terrifying; she is sexually attractive and monstrous at the same time.”

In other words, this is another project capitalizing on Twilight‘s landslide that will slowly encompass the entirety of civilization. This is pretty great news for Somerhalder, though, who’s been riding just under the surface of leading man status for quite some time. He’ll be joined in the cast by The Boys are Back‘s Emma Lung. Production on Cradlewood will begin in April.