One of the more successful horror films in recent years, The Pang Brothers’ The Eye, is getting the remake treatment and Jessica Alba looks set to star. Variety reported late Tuesday that the star of Sin City and Into the Blue was in talks to star in the recently revived The Eye, which had been put in turnaround by Paramount, but has now been picked up by Lions Gate. The tale of a woman who gets her vision back but can see more than she should could start shooting as early as this winter with French directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud, who are actually just coming off of their French debut, the horror film Ils.

After its international success, Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner convinced Paramount to buy the rights to The Eye four years ago, but the project never got off the ground after Renee Zellweger, the originally intended star, dropped out. Jessica Alba looks like she might make the horror remake her first film after she finishes the currently shooting Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer, while it would be the first U.S. film for directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud. Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner would still produce, even though the film has moved to Lions Gate, after being put in turnaround by Paramount.

The Eye, as directed by Danny and Oxide Pang in Hong Kong, had a brief run in American art house theaters and is available on DVD but, despite a loyal cult following, isn’t as widely known as some of the other recent remakes like The Ring and The Grudge, which did wonders for Naomi Watts and Sarah Michelle Gellar, respectively. Jessica Alba is hoping for similar horror remake success. The Eye is a powerful tale of a young woman - the role Jessica Alba would take - who gets a cornea transplant, allowing her to see again, but she starts to have visions of people that others can’t (kind of like Cole from The Sixth Sense) and they may be trying to harm her. In the end, she’s forced to track down the original owner of the transplanted organ to try and figure out what’s happening. It’s a creepy, atmospheric tale with a twist as good as The Sixth Sense and if handled well, could be a huge platform for Jessica Alba.

Not like Jessica Alba needs much of a launching point nowadays, as she graces magazine covers constantly (she was just on the front of Entertainment Weekly) and has a loyal male and female following. After a successful career as a child actor, Jessica Alba took the world by storm in FOX’s Dark Angel. After that breakthrough, she would go on to star as Nancy Callahan in Sin City (and is in pre-production to star in the sequel, Sin City 2, as well), Sue Storm in Fantastic Four, and Sam in Into the Blue. After a relatively quiet period for such a rising star, Jessica Alba has six films on her docket, not including The Eye. She’ll reprise her roles in Fantastic Four and Sin City and will star in the drama Awake later this year, along with Bill, co-starring Aaron Eckhart, next year. Jessica Alba’s a busy actress and The Eye will just be added to the list. If The Eye starts filming by the end of this year, watch for a release late next, perhaps even in the coveted Halloween Lions Gate slot, which has done wonders for the Saw franchise the last few years. That’s assuming, of course, that Saw IV isn’t in that slot.