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It feels like Jessica Chastain is a name that we’ve been hearing about for years now, without much evidence to go by in terms of released movies. But now that we’ve seen her in a leading role in Terrence Malick‘s “The Tree of Life,” we understand why she’s such a hot property: she’s a terrific, luminous actress.

Twitch reports that Chastain has signed on to “Mama,” a feature-length remake of a 2008 short film by Spanish filmmaker Andres Muschietti that Universal International are putting together.

The short, which involves two young girls pursued by a woman who wants to use them to bring back her own dead children, got great acclaim at festivals in the last few years, and a remake has apparently been in the works for a while: it will come as no great surprise, considering his track record in the genre, that Guillermo Del Toro is producing the project, one of the seemingly thousands of films he’s lending his name to.

The last time Del Toro lent his name to a first-time Spanish genre director, we got Juan Antonio Bayona‘s “The Orphanage,” as close to an instant classic in the horror genre as anything in the last few years, so we hope the success is repeated. Having Chastain on board certainly helps us take this one seriously.

Filming will start in October, so a release in 2012 seems likely.