Heads are spinning over at Netflix, the streaming service that just paid a whopping $65M+ for an exorcism movie from Oscar-nominated director Lee Daniels, reports Deadline.
The site said there was a massive bidding war for the star-studded exorcism movie package that will reunite Daniels with his Oscar-nominated The United States Vs Billie Holiday star Andra Day, who’ll star with Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water, Ma), Glenn Close (Fatal Attraction), Rob Morgan (Don’t Look Up), Caleb McLaughlin (“Stranger Things”) and Aunjanue Ellis.
“Day will play the mother of an Indiana family whose children purportedly became demonically possessed in a thriller inspired by an actual case.”
Here’s the site’s breakdown of the true story that’s inspiring this mega-exorcism project:
“In a case widely covered at the time, Latoya Ammons and her three children experienced strange incidents in their Gary, Indiana home that grew progressively worse, with the children levitating, becoming violent with each other, and speaking in growls and deep voices with no recollection afterwards.
“Skeptics abounded, but the Gary Police Department, Department of Child Services and the local church and hospital all became involved, filing reports that took the supernatural occurrences seriously — officers, doctors and social workers said they witnessed many of the incidents, including one in which her 9-year old son walked backwards up a wall.
“The Indianapolis Star covered it closely, as the Department of Child Services investigated it.”
Dave Coggeshall wrote drafts as did Elijah Bynum. Then Daniels rewrote it himself and that is the script that buyers read. It uses the case to frame a fictional thriller, as was done with The Amityville Horror, The Exorcist, The Conjuring and other franchises purported to be based on or inspired by actual events, adds the site.
Daniels, Tucker Tooley and Pam Williams are producing. It is fast-tracked to begin production by the middle of this year.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It | Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures