Lionsgate has picked up the North American rights to Ghost House Pictures’ Dibbuk Box, a creepy curse story based on an old internet urban legend brought to light by a 2004 Los Angeles Times piece entitled “A Jinx in a Box.”

According to the Times’ story, Oregon antiques collector Kevin Mannis put up an old Jewish wine cabinet box for sale on EBay when he came to realize that it was haunted by a dybbuk spirit (think a Yiddish poltergeist). Mannis claims that he, along with the box’s previous owners, had suffered sudden and inexplicable misfortune, possibly of a paranormal nature.

The box was purchased from Mannis in the summer of 2003 by Missouri college student Iosif Nietzke, who soon experienced some freaky shit of his own, including hair loss and peripheral visions of a lingering blurred figure. He put the box up for sale on EBay a year later.

Ghost House’s adaptation of the Dibbuk Box story will center on a family in possession of the haunted wine box and their attempt to be rid of it. The script is penned by Juliet Snowden and Stiles White, writers of the Nicholas Cage sci-fi thriller Knowing and the upcoming remakes Poltergeist (MGM) and The Birds (Universal).

Ghost House Pictures has produced the horror hits Drag Me to Hell, 30 Days of Night, and The Grudge. Founders Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert are also the producing team behind the Starz network’s sexy swords-&-sandals series “Spartacus: Blood and Sand.”