By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The streamer paid upward of $65 million for the movie set to roll in mid-2022.
Deadline reports that that figure covers budget and buyouts for the currently untitled chiller. To be directed by Lee Daniels (THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY, THE BUTLER) from his own script, it’ll star BILLIE HOLIDAY’s Andra Day (pictured), Octavia Spencer (MA), Glenn Close, Rob Morgan, Caleb McLaughlin and Aunjanue Ellis. Day will play Latoya Ammons, a real-life mother in Gary, Indiana whose three children apparently became possessed in 2011, exhibiting bizarre and violent behavior. Ammons first optioned the rights to her story to Relativity in 2014, and after that company went bankrupt, its former executive Tucker Tooley took on the project, with Dave Coggeshall (THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2: GHOSTS OF GEORGIA, ORPHAN: FIRST KILL) and Elijah Bynum writing previous drafts of the script.
The Ammons house was later bought by paranormal investigator Zak Bagans, who documented his experiences there in 2018’s DEMON HOUSE. You can see our review of the movie here and an interview with Bagans here.
