Regina a haven for movie ravens

In a scene that might have given Alfred Hitchcock chills, 18 large ravens were recently seen cawing energetically outside a Regina movie soundstage.

They're specially trained birds from Prague, Czech Republic, that are part of a horror movie being shot in the Regina area this summer. A crew of wranglers and trainers, also from Prague, is working with them as their shooting days approach.

The movie is the first English-language feature directed by Hong Kong filmmakers Oxide and Danny Pang.

The brothers, who were spotted checking out the ravens on the soundstage lawn earlier this month, are best known for the horror films The Eye and The Eye 2.

Although signs outside the soundstage called the movie Scarecrow, it's also known as the Untitled Pang Brothers Horror Project.

According to the press release by Ghost House Pictures, in the movie "an ominous darkness invades a seemingly serene sunflower farm in North Dakota" and a family is "torn apart by suspicion, mayhem and murder."

TV heartthrobs Dylan McDermott (The Practice) and John Corbett (Sex and the City) are among the humans starring in the film.

However, based on the curious groups of people who flocked to see the ravens last week, the movie may yet turn out to be one for the birds.