THE CONJURING Creator Developing a New Horror Film Franchise THE HAUNTED
The creator of The Conjuring Tony DeRosa-Grund, is now developing a whole new horror film franchise with The Haunted. DeRosa-Grund developed the original Conjuring movie and also crafted the overall trajectory for the concept, which as you know, has been very successful. In recent months, we learned there will be a fourth Conjuring movie along with a TV series.
As for The Haunted, that film franchise will also draw inspiration from real-life encounters with terrifying spirits from beyond and tell the stories of the victims who suffered through these harrowing experiences. The creator said that The Haunted “is exponentially better, truer, and more terrifying” than The Conjuring.
The announcement reads: "Cinedigm announced today that the Company will be partnering with horror heavyweight Tony DeRosa-Grund, creator of The Conjuring (over $2 billion in box office to date), to develop The Haunted, a new paranormal horror franchise based on verifiable actual events.”
As far as the story goes, “Cinedigm can confirm that The Haunted franchise starts with one family's dark and terrifying real-life preternatural experiences which intersect with historical facts and legends surrounding a young pregnant woman accused by her own father of being a witch. That convergence places the family in impending mortal danger.”
DeRosa-Grund named the franchise, and created the 'road map' for it, and it “aims to emulate that prior success by similarly building The Haunted universe through sequels, historical prequels, and spinoffs. The franchise's initial focus will be on the real events experienced by a multi-generational family under siege from malevolent, and extremely violent, supernatural forces. The Haunted also focuses on its extremely rare circumstances which occurred when the living persons involved suffered significant, and repeated, real physical harm -- even a death -- from these dark forces that plagued them. The fact that these events could happen to anyone, combined with the 'you can run but you can't hide' aspect of the family's very real plight, plumbs new depths of the horror genre."
Tom Owen, Managing Director of Cinedigm/Bloody Disgusting, said in a statement: "We are thrilled to be collaborating with Tony DeRosa-Grund, a modern master of the horror genre, on The Haunted franchise. Based on the true-life events, these films will take audiences on a wild and terrifying journey into the world of the paranormal, unlike any other ever seen before in film. We are confident The Haunted, will set a new bar for horror movies and will absolutely resonate with horror enthusiasts, as well as every other audience quadrant."
DeRosa-Grund added: "Having created, produced, and written the story for the original The Conjuring, I can say, with absolute clarity and certainty, that The Haunted is exponentially better, truer, and more terrifying. I am truly excited to be working with Tom and Brad [Miska of Cinedigm/Bloody Disgusting] who 'got it,' and embraced the project right from our very first pitch meeting. I want to also thank Cinedigm Chairman Chris McGurk, who not only backed my very first feature film, but also convinced me to come out of my retirement for this project."
As a fan of horror films, I really hope that this new franchise ends up being as good and as scary as they envision it. The world could always use more great horror films!