More details on Steven Spielberg’s upcoming ghost and UFO based social network, which we first wrote about in early March and followed up with additional details a week later. The site will reportedly be called “Rising” or “The Rising” (our understanding is that they have acquired both .com domain names), and the logo above and animated logo below are at least preliminary versions of the final.

We originally heard that The Rising is being created in partnership with Windsor Media, Terry Semel’s investment firm, but we still haven’t gotten confirmation of their involvement. Windsor was created by Semel before he went to Yahoo, was put on hold during his tenure there, and fired up again after his departure last year.

The Rising will have original video content with a permanent host in addition to the social network where users can share stories and experiences, tapping into serious demand for this kind of thing. There are thousands of forums dedicated to paranormal and UFO topics today – among them is, yes, a Meetup site for ghost trackers.

Rumored launch date is this summer.

Update to our post last week about Steven Spielberg’s new Ghost and UFO based social network: We still don’t have the name of it, but it is being referred to as “Ghosts” to outsiders they are pitching it to (I still prefer “Ghost Town”). They will be putting a big focus on original video content (think Twighlight Zone-type stuff) with a permanent host. We’ve heard of a couple of people they’ve approached for the job.

And most interesting – the project is being created in partnership with the secretive Windsor Media, Terry Semel’s investment firm. Windsor was created by Semel before he went to Yahoo. It was put on hold during his tenure there, but fired up again after his departure last year.

Semel and Spielberg are longtime friends, and so it’s natural that the two would be working together on the project. But the big question is, when will this launch? Stay tuned for that, we’re still digging.

Hollywood super producer Steven Spielberg is preparing to launch a new social network, we’ve heard from multiple sources. The focus will be on users who’ve had or who are interested in sharing paranormal and extraterrestrial experiences. The new social network may also have original video content investigating alleged ghost and UFO stories.

Spielberg has always had a love for ghost and UFO stories. His movies include Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Poltergeist (1982), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Casper (1995), Men in Black (1997), The Haunting (1999), War of the Worlds (2005) and the upcoming Interstellar (2009). His first movie, at 16, was a 140-minute science fiction adventure called Firelight (which later inspired Close Encounters). Add to those titles a score of other sci-fi movies.

Spielberg has apparently had at least one paranormal experience himself. There are stories of him staying in a hotel called Excelsior House and being so frightened by ghosts that he fled the room and moved 20 miles away. We’ve also heard anecdotes about Spielberg seeing the ghost of a dead relative repeatedly as a child. Whether based in reality or the product of an exceptional imagination, these experiences may have had an impact on his life’s work and this upcoming social network.

The project may have originally been associated with Yahoo but the project was killed off before launch. But if our sources are right, the idea has lived on and a team in Los Angeles is working to launch it in the next few months.