EXCLUSIVE: Following his work on the Screen Gems video game adaptation Until Dawn, David F. Sandberg has inked a deal to tackle another beloved genre property, as director of a new Amityville Horror movie in development at Amazon MGM Studios.
Fresh off the success of The Conjuring: Last Rites, which was released in theaters this past weekend and has already earned $187 million global, Ian Goldberg & Richard Naing have been tapped to write the script, described as a reimagining of the original horror classic. Further specifics as to the story here are under wraps. The Safran Company’s Peter Safran and John Rickard will produce alongside Sandberg, with The Safran Company’s Natalia Safran being joined as executive producer by Lotta Losten.
Sandberg comes to the project after collaborating with The Safran Company on projects like Annabelle: Creation, which grossed over $300 million at the worldwide box office, and Shazam!.
Dating back to the late ’70s, The Amityville Horror franchise originated with a Stuart Rosenberg film, starring James Brolin, Margot Kidder, and Rod Steiger, which adapted both the Jay Anson 1977 book of the same name, as well as the paranormal legend at its center. That tale is set in motion in 1974, when Ronald DeFeo Jr. murders his parents and four siblings in their home at 112 Ocean in Amityville, New York. A year or so after the horrific crime, George and Kathy Lutz, along with their three children, move into the house, unaware of its dark past. And shortly after settling in, they claim to experience a series of unsettling paranormal phenomena.
Clearly, there’s great interest in Amityville right now as a jumping-off point for new feature stories. Only a couple of months ago, we reported exclusively that BoulderLight Pictures and Divide/Conquer — the producers of Weapons and Heart Eyes, respectively — are developing a new Amityville project set apart from the film canon, with roots in the public domain folk tale. Joseph and Vanessa Winter, the married writer-director duo behind the SXSW found footage horror movie Deadstream, will direct that one from their own script.
Word of the Amityville projects comes at an opportune time, as it’s been a while since we’ve seen a real breakout entry in the franchise. The most recent, semi-notable installment came last year with Amityville: Where the Echo Lives, a Lionsgate title with a no-name cast that went straight to Max. Prior to that, Dimension Films and Blumhouse were among the producers of Amityville: The Awakening, a title released through RADiUS-TWC that had a decent cast in Bella Thorne, Cameron Monaghan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mckenna Grace and Thomas Mann, but grossed just a little over $8 million.
In addition to Until Dawn and Annabelle: Creation, Sandberg is known for his work on the horror pic Lights Out, as well as both Shazam! films. He is repped by CAA, Gotham Group, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
Goldberg and Naing are writer-producers who have previously worked together on projects like The Nun II, Fear the Walking Dead and The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Naing is repped by Independent Artist Group, Circle Management + Production, and Del Shaw Moonves; Goldberg by WME, New Wave Entertainment, and Del Shaw Moonves.
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