Italian actress Matilda Lutz has been cast as the lead in Paramount’s upcoming reboot of The Ring franchise.

F. Javier Gutierrez (who made a name for himself with the Spanish-language sci-fi thriller Before The Fall) is directing the reboot which will bring back familiar elements from the original with a fresh new cast.

Lutz has appeared in a number of Italian TV shows and movies, including Fuoriclasse and The Fifth Wheel. If this new take on The Ring proves to be a success, it could obviously open a lot of new doors to the actress.

The first movie was released in 2002, directed by Gore Verbinski, and starred Naomi Watts as the lead.

That earned an impressive $249.3 million worldwide, but the not so great sequel which followed in 2005 – The Ring Two – grossed only $161.5 million. This isn’t the first time that there’s been talk of a third movie in the franchise however, as Paramount were at one point planning on releasing The Ring 3D back in 2010.

The Ring focused on a mysterious (and cursed, obviously) video tape which killed whoever watched it. However, it’s hard to imagine that anyone owns a VHS player these days, so perhaps they’ll upgrade to a DVD or Blu-ray? I mean, they are at least the right shape for a movie called The Ring, are they not?