Directed by Michael and Peter Spierig (who are expected to helm the new Saw movie), starring Helen Mirren, and taking place in the real-life—and quite possibly haunted—Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, the horror movie Winchester doesn't begin filming until next March, but it has already been acquired for US distribution by CBS films:
Press Release: LOS ANGELES – August 8, 2016 – CBS Films announced today that it has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to WINCHESTER from Bullitt Entertainment and Diamond Pictures.
The film is being directed by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig (Predestination) who wrote the screenplay for WINCHESTER with Tom Vaughan. Academy Award®-winner Helen Mirren (The Queen) will star, with Imagination Design Works’ Brett Tomberlin and Blacklab Entertainment’s Tim McGahan producing.
The film follows the story of firearm heiress Sarah Winchester (Mirren), who was convinced that she was haunted by the souls killed at the hands of the Winchester repeating rifle. After the sudden deaths of her husband and child, she threw herself into the 24-hour a day, seven days a week construction of an enormous mansion designed to keep the evil spirits at bay. But when skeptical San Francisco psychiatrist Eric Price is dispatched to the estate to evaluate her state of mind, he discovers that her obsession may not be so insane after all. WINCHESTER will take audiences inside the labyrinth like house that is believed to be one of the most haunted places in the world.
“We were immediately obsessed with the Spierig brothers intelligent and twisted take on a great American legend and could not be more excited to be working with the Spierig brothers and Dame Helen Mirren to bring this film to audiences,” commented CBS Films Executive Vice President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions Scott Shooman.
Added the Spierigs: “We were impressed by CBS Films' experience with the genre and their passion for and understanding of the material and know that they are the perfect U.S. Distribution partner for this film.”
WINCHESTER is being financed by Bullitt Entertainment, Diamond Pictures and Blacklab Entertainment, with Diamond Pictures handling international sales. Bullitt’s Benedict Carver, Diamond’s Daniel Diamond and Tobin Armbrust are executive producing. Andy Trapani, Toni Lianos, Brian Gilbert, Marc Shipper and Simon Oakes also will serve as executive producers.
Production will begin in March 2017 on location in San Jose and in Australia. CBS Films’ latest release, the acclaimed action thriller Hell Or High Water, opens in limited release this Friday.
Benedict Carver, Daniel Diamond and WME brokered the deal with CBS Films.
About CBS Films
CBS Films is a division of CBS Corporation. The division develops, finances, acquires, produces and releases theatrical feature films spanning all genres. For more information, log on to www.cbsfilms.com.About The Winchester House
For nearly 100 years, the Winchester Mystery House has stood as a testament to inenuity, persistence of vision and lore that surrounds its namesake, Sarah Winchester (heir to the Winchester Repeating Rifle fortune). A true pioneer who crisscrossed the United States via steam train many times during the waning days of the “wild west,” Sarah Winchester lives on in legend as a grieving widow who continuously built onto her small farm house to appease the spirits of those killed by the guns manufactured by her husband’s firearms company.Sarah Winchester’s grand mansion is renowned for its many architectural curiosities and paranormal activity (In 2008 TIME magazine cited it among the “Top 10 Haunted Places”). From 1884-1922 construction never ceased as the original farm house grew into the world’s most unusual and labyrinth-mansion (24,000 square feet built at a then astronomical cost of $5 million), featuring: 160 rooms (either frozen in a state of arrested decay or resplendent in Victorian grandeur), 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 9 kitchens, 13 bathrooms, plus 47 stairways and fireplaces.
The estate is list on the National Register of Historic Places, is a California Historic State Landmark, a San Jose City Landmark and one of the leading attractions in the Bay Area. Additional information may be found at www.winchestermysteryhouse.com.
*Note: Above image courtesy of the official Winchester Mystery House Facebook page.
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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