James Wan, director of 2013's The Conjuring and Saw, has signed on to direct The Conjuring 2 for a 2016 release.
Start practicing your between-the-fingers movie viewing now, and brace yourself for a whole lot of jumps, because James Wan is gearing up to direct The Conjuring 2.
Late last night, Warner Bros. revealed that The Conjuring 2 was moving from its original October 2015 release date to sometime in 2016. But today, horror fans should rejoice at the thought since Wan, who helmed 2013’s horror blockbuster (as well as Saw and Insidious), is stepping behind the camera again after initial apprehension.
His return to the foreboding adventures of Ed and Lorraine Warren—the stars of The Conjuring series, as embodied by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga—is part of an overall deal that will allow his production label Atomic Monster to develop genre fare in horror, comedy, and other varieties at New Line Cinema (the only deal the New Line label has with any filmmaker). This is not too surprising since Wan and New Line are coming off the successful producing collaboration of this October’s Annabelle spin-off.
However, it will also allow Wan a first-look at films in development at Warner Bros. Generally speaking, Wan is still signed on for potentially two more Fast and Furious movies at Universal, as his first foray into the series Fast & Furious 7 is due out in April 2015 after massive delays following Paul Walker’s tragic death. However, it could be conceivable Universal and WB are both waiting to see how that action movie debut does. If Fast & Furious 7 is a hit, could WB be grooming Wan as a member of its stable of filmmakers that will be bringing the DC Cinematic Universe to life over the next decade?
In any event, Wan is most definitely returning to The Conjuring sequel that unlike this year’s lackluster Annabelle, will be based on a “true story” about the Warrens dealing with the Enfield Ghost outside of London. This is good news for any like us, who enjoyed the first Conjuring, as the sequel is also being written by the 2013 film’s scribes, Chad and Carey Hayes.
We talked to Patrick Wilson last year about what to expect from the material, and he had some interesting insights. “[It’s] about a case in London about two sisters that were possessed.” Wilson said his knowledge comes from Ed and Lorraine Warrens’ The Demonologist book, which Wilson described to me as: “In the latter half of that book, it gets pretty intense and insane.”
Upon Wan’s boarding of The Conjuring 2, New Line president and COO Toby Emmerich said, “We had a great experience with James on The Conjuring, and we give him a lot of credit for that movie working so well.” Emmerich continued, “He worked on the screenplay and came to the table with very inventive things that were not in the script and cast it fantastically well.”
The Conjuring 2 will begin haunting movie theaters in 2016.
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