Well, in terms of keeping the project under wraps, DreamWorks can probably find a silver lining from “Haunted” in that no one knew it existed until today. But the circumstances around why people know about this horror film are probably not what they wanted.
THR reports that the movie, which was set to start filming within weeks, and had Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (“28 Weeks Later,” “Intruders“) directing a script by Scott Z. Burns (“Contagion,” “The Bourne Ultimatum“) has been shut down over the creative changes made by the director and writer. Apparently, the project started with a script by Chad and Carey Hayes (“The Conjuring“), but Fresnadillo and Burns did such an extensive rewrite as to render the original idea mostly unrecognizable, at least according to the studio side of things. And so, DreamWorks decided to halt everything altogether instead of moving ahead with the $17 million movie.
“Haunted,” which is apparently inspired by Henry James‘ classic “The Turn of the Screw,” will go back into development, so we’ll see who DreamWorks hires to put forth the vision they had intended. No word on what Fresnadillo will pivot to next, but this is the second bit of bummer news for Burns this year, who was hired to head the writing team on “Vinyl” season two, only for HBO to cancel the series entirely.