After the much-deserved success of The Conjuring 2, it looks like New Line Cinema is getting serious about building a true “Warren Files” universe, as The Hollywood Reporter brings word that that film’s writer David Leslie Johnson (Aquaman, Wrath of the Titans) has been hired to pen a spin-off of the demonic nun character titled, appropriately, The Nun.
This follows in the footsteps of the previous spin-off Annabelle, which while not quite as critically or financially successful as The Conjuring, earned quite enough ($256 million worldwide) to warrant an Annabelle 2, which will be directed by David F. Sandberg (Lights Out) and open on May 19, 2017. Series caretakers James Wan and Peter Safran will produce The Nun, which was apparently a character added in last-minute reshoots just this past March. The main villain was originally a horned demon who was cut from the film.
Earning nearly $100 million worldwide in its first three days of release, The Conjuring 2 was directed by James Wan (Furious 7) following the record-breaking success of The Conjuring, bringing to the screen another real case from the files of renowned demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren.
Oscar nominee Vera Farmiga (Up In the Air, Bates Motel) and Patrick Wilson (the Insidious films) return as the Warrens, who, in one of their most terrifying paranormal investigations, travel to north London to help a single mother raising four children alone in a house plagued by malicious spirits.
The film follows the phenomenal worldwide reception of Wan’s The Conjuring, which marked the largest opening ever for an original horror movie. The film went on to make more than $318 million worldwide and still remains the second-highest grossing original horror movie of all time, second only to The Exorcist.
Rounding out the cast of The Conjuring 2 are Frances O’Connor (The Missing) as the single mom, with Madison Wolfe (Zoo) and newcomers Lauren Esposito, Patrick McAuley and Benjamin Haigh as her children; Maria Doyle Kennedy (Orphan Black); Simon Delaney (Roy); Franka Potente (The Bridge); and Simon McBurney (Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation).
