Netflix, MGM and Miramax, went head to head over the weekend during and auction battle for a Lee Daniels exorcism movie with a stellar cast.
Lee Daniels will direct, Andra Day, alongside Octavia Spencer, Glenn Close , Rob Morgan, Caleb Mclaughlin and Aunjanue Ellis.
Day, who was recently Oscar-nominated The United States vs. Billie Holiday, will play the mother of an Indiana family whose children purportedly became demonically possessed in a thriller inspired by an actual case.
Based On Actual Story:
In a case widely covered at the time, Latoya Ammons and her three children experienced strange incidents in their Gary, IN, home that grew progressively worse, with the children levitating, becoming violent with one another and speaking in growls and deep voices with no recollection afterward. Skeptics abounded, but the Gary Police Department, Department of Child Services and the local church and hospital all became involved, filing reports that took the supernatural occurrences seriously. Officers, doctors and social workers said they witnessed many of the incidents, including one in which her 9-year-old son walked backward up a wall. The Indianapolis Star covered it closely as the Department of Child Services investigated it.
Deadline reports that the package closed upward of $65 million, covering the film’s budget and buyouts. This auction had escalated quickly over the weekend and came down to Netflix, MGM and Miramax. It proves yet again that packages like this one are the preferable way to do business with strong elements and a commercial concept. Sources said that when it was submitted, the film had a net budget around $30 million. It shows that even though Netflix saw its stock value fall on reports of softer-than-expected subscriber growth, with a price hike coming to offset content costs, the arms race among the high-end streamers continues to escalate.
Daniels, Tucker Tooley and Pam Williams will be producers on the project and said to begin production by the middle of this 2022.
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