Sam Raimi Producing HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE for Legendary Entertainment
Legendary Entertainment has acquired the movie rights to Grady Hendrix’s bestselling horror novel How to Sell a Haunted House, and Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert are set to produce it through their Ghost House Pictures production company.
Hendrix will also write the script for the movie, which will be directed by New Zealand-based Māori filmmaker James Ashcroft, who previously made the indie horror film Coming Home in the Dark.
In the story, “When Louise finds out her parents have died, she dreads going home. She doesn’t want to leave her daughter with her ex and fly to Charleston. She doesn’t want to deal with her family home, stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. She doesn’t want to learn how to live without the two people who knew and loved her best in the world. Most of all, she doesn’t want to deal with her brother, Mark, who never left their hometown, gets fired from one job after another, and resents her success. Unfortunately, she’ll need his help to get the house ready for sale because it’ll take more than some new paint on the walls and clearing out a lifetime of memories to get this place on the market. But some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them…”
This sounds like an intriguing haunted house horror story and I’m all in! I think I’ll read the book before the movie comes out. This sounds like the kind of story I’d enjoy! The story is said to include an “evil puppet antagonist, and a deeply emotional story about the horrors of family.”
The New York Times said in their book review, “Hendrix has created a wholly original creature in Pupkin, one as iconic as Chuckie or Pennywise. Pupkin represents the losses of growing up. He’s the vehicle of an unfulfilled mother’s pain, her regrets and loneliness. He’s childhood trauma incarnate, delivered from one generation to the next.”
Hendrix is also the author of the bestselling My Best Friend’s Exorcism, which was recently adapted into the Amazon Studios film. How To Sell a Haunted House sounds like it’s going to make for a great movie!