How’s this for a spooky coincidence just waiting to send a cold shiver down your spine: the lead actress hired for New Line’s Conjuring spin-off Annabelle bears the same name as the cursed doll! Cue the Twilight Zone music, because Annabelle Wallis and Ward Horton are set for the new horror film.
The Conjuring’s cinematographer John Leonetti is preparing to direct the movie, which focuses on the creepy doll featured in the opening scene of James Wan’s box office smash.
The Conjuring, of course, followed real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, played in the fictionalised version by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. They’re not back for this (yet), though Wan is serving as executive producer, overseeing a script from Gary Dauberman.
Exactly how Annabelle herself – who is a real, demonic doll, albeit of a different design to that seen in the film – will factor into the story remains to be seen, though we doubt Wallis and Horton will have a good time of it.
Wallis was most recently seen in Peaky Blinders and also appeared on The Tudors, while on the big screen she popped up in X-Men: First Class and Snow White And The Huntsman. She’ll next be part of the Beeb’s Ian Fleming miniseries. Horton played a broker in The Wolf Of Wall Street.