Netflix aren’t shy when it comes to throwing around your cash, so they’ve pulled out all the stops and a $65M cheque in order to secure Precious director Lee Daniels’ next movie.
According to Deadline several bidders were involved in negotiations, with Netflix emerging victorious over the likes of MGM and Miramax for the film, which is being described as an exorcism thriller based on a true story.
If you want to know why the auction was so fiercely contested then you only need to look at the cast Daniels has assembled; he will reunite with his Academy Award nominated The United States vs. Billie Holiday star Andra Day, who will feature alongside Octavia Spencer (Ma), Glenn Close (The Wife), Rob Morgan (Don’t Look Up), Caleb McLaughlin (Stranger Things) and Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard).
In the untitled horror Day will play the mother of an Indiana family whose children purportedly became demonically possessed, in a story inspired by the case of Latoya Ammons and her three children, who experienced strange incidents in their home that grew increasingly worse, with reports of levitation, extreme violence, and speaking in growls. Details can be found at the Indianapolis Star, who widely reported on the case at the time, with incidents such as “a 9-year-old boy walking backward up a wall” and “a series of exorcisms” detailed in 800 pages of official reports obtained by the paper.
Daniels is writing the screenplay with David Coggeshall and Elijah Bynum and production is set to be fast-tracked to get underway in mid-2022.
