New Line Cinema’s winning streak launching horror franchises dates all the way back to the first A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984. And it looks like it’s continuing full steam with a second spin-off from its new blockbuster franchise, The Conjuring.
The Warner Bros. division is moving forward with The Nun, a spin-off of its most recent franchise film The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist, hiring up-and-coming horror director Corin Hardy to helm it. It will continue the story of a demon nun, according to Variety, featured in last year’s film that earned $311.3 million globally.
The demon nun came to life in The Conjuring 2 from a painting by Patrick Wilson’s paranormal investigator Ed Warren, and later attacked Vera Farmiga’s Lorraine Warren. The Conjuring 2 deals with the 1977 case of demonic possession of an 11-year-old British girl, played by Madison Wolfe.
Franchise director James Wan may not be helming The Nun, but he’s definitely involved, both in the script process and as a producer. Wan took a somewhat similar approach to the first spin-off of the franchise, Annabelle, which earned $256.9 million in 2014, and was directed by John R. Leonetti, who directed photography work in the original 2013 The Conjuring.
With it all said and done, the three films in the franchise so far have grossed $886.1 million for New Line since 2013. Impressive, because the total budget for the three films was $66.5 million – combined.
Hardy’s most notable work to date is The Hallow, based on a story he co-wrote with Felipe Marino (as Olga Barreneche) about a family who moves into a remote Irish mill house, only to find themselves fighting demons who live in the woods.
That film earned $1.8 million in 2015 in limited release.
New Line has not yet set a release date for The Nun, but the writers include both Annabelle writer Gary Dauberman and Wan. Dauberman also wrote Annabelle 2, which is due in August with David F. Sandberg at the helm. He’s also attached to help re-imagine Stephen King’s It, which hits theaters Sept. 8.
