DreamWorks Cancels Horror Movie Haunted, Fires Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
An under-the-radar $17 million dollar horror movie titled Haunted was only five short weeks away from going before cameras, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, DreamWorks Pictures and producer Steven Spielberg have pulled the plug.
The gothic terror tale — loosely based on Henry James’ classic story “The Turn of the Screw” — was set to star Rose Leslie (“Game of Thrones”) and Alfre Woodard (Captain America: Civil War), with a script by Chad and Carey Hayes (The Conjuring). Said script was apparently the main source of contention, as director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later, Intruders) and writer Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, Side Effects) did a page-one rewrite that caused such seismic changes in the fabric of the story (altering characters, action, even the title) that it no longer resembled the project the studio signed on to make.
Spielberg and other execs decided the best course of action was to fire Fresnadillo and Burns, going back to the original Hayes Brothers script and looking to start fresh development, despite $5 million having already been spent. While director changes happen all the time on projects in pre-production, they rarely happen this close to shooting, but DreamWorks must have felt it was better to cut their losses. This sounds like a clear-cut case of a filmmaker going off the reservation by not delivering the version of Haunted he was contracted to make.
Fresnadillo recently helmed the pilot for USA Network’s “Falling Water” and has been attached to several high profile projects over the years, including remakes of Highlander, Pet Sematary and The Crow. However, his highly-praised work on 28 Weeks Later is alleged in the article to have required the active involvement of executive producers Danny Boyle and Alex Garland. Hopefully the filmmaker will be able to recover from the setback of Haunted.
(Photo Credit: WENN.com)
