20th Century Studios has acquired the rights to the horror-thriller “Every House Is Haunted” from Netflix, marking a significant shift for a project that has spent years in development. The move facilitates a creative reunion for the team behind the 2024 thriller “Don’t Move,” with directors Adam Schindler and Brian Netto taking the helm and Sam Raimi producing.
The directing duo, who recently saw success with their Netflix survival thriller, are replacing original director Corin Hardy. In addition to their roles behind the camera, Schindler and Netto are performing a rewrite of the screenplay originally written by Jason Pagan and Andrew Deutschman.
The project is an adaptation of “The House on Ashley Avenue,” a short story featured in Ian Rogers’ 2012 collection, “Every House Is Haunted.” The narrative follows an insurance investigator tasked with debunking a claim that a specific house is haunted, an investigation triggered by the suspicious deaths of a couple.
A Multi-Year Journey Through Development
The acquisition by 20th Century Studios ends a nearly five-year tenure at Netflix. The streaming giant originally secured the rights to the project in 2021 following a competitive bidding war. However, the film remained in development limbo for several years before the recent transition to the Disney-owned subsidiary.
The project’s history extends back even further to 2012, when the source material was first optioned for television by Universal. The shift to 20th Century Studios aligns the film with a studio that has recently focused on high-concept horror and genre pieces, such as “Barbarian” and “The Boogeyman.”
Raimi and Schindler/Netto Collaboration
This project marks the third major collaboration between legendary horror filmmaker Sam Raimi and the Schindler-Netto directing team. The trio previously worked together on the anthology series “50 States of Fright” before their recent collaboration on “Don’t Move.”
Zainab Azizi is producing alongside Raimi via Raimi Productions. Roy Lee and Andrew Childs of Vertigo Entertainment are also attached as producers. While the studio has not yet confirmed whether the film is being developed for a theatrical window or a direct-to-streaming release on Hulu and Disney+, the creative realignment suggests a renewed momentum for the long-stalled adaptation.
