After a bidding war, Summit Entertainment secures paranormal thriller “Conjuring” from writers Chad Hayes and Carey Hayes:
Deal comes with life rights to the Perron family, whose experiences in their Rhode Island home informs the film, and Ed and Lorraine Warren, experts in paranormal activities who investigated and battled the activities occurring in the Perron household and did the same in the cases that inspired “The Amityville Horror” and “The Haunting in Connecticut.”Summit is keeping the specifics under wraps, but ghosts and demonic possession are at the center of the plot.
Other bidders: New Line and Screen Gems.
Selling price: Mid-against high-six figures.
The writers are repped by WME and Circle of Confusion.
The article mentions The Amityville Horror (1979) which grossed $86M and The Haunting in Connecticut (2009) which grossed $55M. But then, of course, there’s The Exorcist (1973) which grossed a whopping $232M — so clearly there is an audience for these type of movies, hence the bidding war (especially with the attachments of the Warrens).
What are some other notable paranormal movies? Your favorites?
The insane, out of control, Moe-Larry-Curly antics of Sam Raimi's demons in The Evil Dead movies have always been a personal favorite. Haven't seen it yet but Drag Me To Hell looks like a lot of fun as well.
Most of the supernatural "thrills" out of Hollywood have missed the mark, besides the obvious ones… The Omen, Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby.
By that token, I just finished reading Wes Craven's script "25/8" yesterday. Jesus, what a dog! As structurally unsound as a termite infested house. Some of the individual scenes worked, the guy obviously knows how to ratchet up suspense but man, what a mess!!!
Anyone else read this turd? I think it's in production or nearing release but, wow, hope they can un-fuck the thing in the editing room because on paper… yish.
Soctt, paranormal movies are selling, oh no…
"They're back."
The infamous tag-line from Poltergiest II, (1986) $46 Million in gross, and when it was said…
"They're here."
Poltergiest (1982) was reaping in $122 Million worldwide.
I've written A LOT of movies with the paranormal thrown in: "The Judas Project," "Cowboy Alien Diaries," and "Indians of the Ancient Plains." But I've never really put the paranormal as the main emphasis of script, RATHER I've used is mostly as an accent.
"Phantasm" was a pretty big paranormal film too, it spawned a sequels. For me though "The Amittyville Horror" was enough. I had nightmares about that one.
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
Jeff, couldn't find anything on YouTube about 25/8 but this local newscast of about 25 seconds noting the production in Norwalk, CT.
Question: Did you learn anything from reading that script? Some times, bad scripts do provide good lessons.
My favorite paranormal screen outing? Anything that stars Vin Disel. How is this considered paranormal? Because other-worldly forces must exist if a man who looks like the bastard love child of Telly Savalas and the bald strong man of the Three Stooges shorts and sounds like a professional marble gargler with a speech impediment can be consider, not only a bankable star, but a sex symbol to boot.
That said, my favorite paranormal film would have to be Ghostbusters.