Back in March we reported that 28 Weeks Later’s Juan Carlos Fresnadillo had signed on to direct Haunted, a passion project by Steven Spielberg. Game of Thrones and Last Witch Hunter actress Rose Leslie (above) joins Annabelle’s Alfre Woodard (below) as the first cast members for this dark ghost tale from Amblin Entertainment.
The script, penned by Chad and Carey Hayes (The Conjuring), for Haunted is inspired by the 1898 gothic novella Turn of the Screw written by Henry James.
“The novella’s anonymous narrator is a young woman, a parson’s daughter, who is engaged as governess to two seemingly innocent children at a remote English country house. What initially seems a idyllic soon turns nightmarish, as she becomes convinced that the children are consorting with a pair of malevolent spirits. These are the ghosts of former employees at Bly: a valet and a previous governess. In life, scandalously, the two of them had been discharged as illicit lovers, and their spectral visitations with the children hint at Satanism and possible sexual abuse. The book amply fulfills its pledge, laid down in the first few pages, that nothing can touch it in terms of sheer “dreadful—dreadfulness.” -Amazon
Haunted is being produced by some serious heavy-hitters including Roy Lee (Blair Witch, Death Note, The Ring), John Middleton (Bates Motel), and Scott Bernstein (Straight Out of Compton).
