Paramount Pictures has inked a first-look producing deal with Platinum Dunes, the genre division run by Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, according to Variety.

The Platinum Dunes deal puts him and his partners in position to be the go-to guys for low-budget fright fare.

"We offer a valuable service to the studio, especially with all this turmoil going on in the business right now, in that we do things cheaply, and we've had a lot of success with it," Bay said. "Through the first two 'Transformers' films, I've gotten to know the studio very well, and I've got a good rhythm with them. I'm excited about this."

The Paramount relationship gets under way with The Butcherhouse Chronicles, a thriller that is being scripted by Stephen Susco and is being likened to The Breakfast Club in a haunted house. The producers have also come aboard the Paramount project Property of the State, a Howard Franklin-scripted thriller about a young white-collar criminal whose attempt to straighten out his life is imperiled by an obsessive and menacing parole officer.

The Butcherhouse Chronicles is in development .