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DUBAI - An Abu Dhabi production company has brought in a Hollywood director to make the UAE’s first feature-length horror film, local daily The National reported on Friday.

Imagenation, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC), said the film is entitled "The Jinn" and is based on the genie in Arab folklore of the same name, according the newspaper.

The film follows the life of a couple who return to the UAE and start to experience strange and unexplained happenings, The National reported.

The production company will not reveal who they had teamed up with to produce "The Jinn" until the film is officially announced on Jan. 3, according to the newspaper.

"I can say that he is one of Hollywood’s horror genre masters," Daniella Tully, Imagenation’s vice-president of development and a producer of the film, was quoted as saying.

The production company, currently casting, said filming should take around two months and is expected to start sometime in the first quarter of next year, The National reported.

"The film is in Arabic with some English in it. Casting has begun in the UAE, Cairo, Amman and the US for Emirati and Arab characters and an American one, generally representative of the natural character and make-up of UAE society," Rami Yasin, head of production at Imagenation and another of the producers, was quoted as saying.

Jinn are supernatural creatures in Arab folklore and Islamic teachings that are made of fire and usually invisible to humans.

They can be good, evil, or neutrally benevolent, but the evil ones have the ability to torment humans. Local newspaper reports of jinn kidnapping children or convincing people to do bad things are not uncommon.

To date there have been two other horror movies made about jinn, according to website The Internet Movie Database, one that was released in 2007 and another set to be released next year.

The film to be released next year, also entitled "Jinn", stars Serinda Swan of "TRON: Legacy", Ray Park of "X-Men" and William Atherton of the "Die Hard" franchise and "Ghostbusters".