CBS Films has announced today that principal photography on their upcoming supernatural thriller Winchester has officially begun. Production on the film will take place in Melbourne, Australia before moving to the actual Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. The film stars Academy Award winner Helen Mirren (The Queen, Eye in the Sky) and Jason Clarke (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Zero Dark Thirty), and is written and directed by Michael and Peter Spierig (Predestination).
The film follows the story of firearm heiress Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren), who was convinced that she was haunted by the souls killed at the hands of the Winchester repeating rifle. After the sudden deaths of her husband and child, she threw herself into the 24-hours a day, seven days a week construction of an enormous mansion designed to keep the evil spirits at bay. But when skeptical San Francisco psychiatrist Eric Price (Jason Clarke) is dispatched to the estate to evaluate her state of mind, he discovers that her obsession may not be so insane after all. Winchester will take audiences inside the labyrinth-like house that is believed to be one of the most haunted places in the world.
Additional cast members include Sarah Snook (The Dressmaker, The Glass Castle) and Angus Sampson (Insidious, TV’s Fargo)
Blacklab Entertainment’s Tim McGahan and Imagination Design Works’ Brett Tomberlin are producing Winchester. Tobin Ambrust, Andy Trapani, Toni Lianos, Brian Gilbert, Marc Shipper and Simon Oakes are also executive producing.
