The Turning: an upcoming 2020 American supernatural horror film

The Turning: an upcoming 2020 American supernatural horror film 

The Turning is an upcoming American supernatural horror film directed by Floria Sigismondi and executive produced by Steven Spielberg that is a modern adaptation of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. It will star Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard, Brooklynn Prince, and Joely Richardson.

The film is scheduled to be released on January 24, 2020, by Universal Pictures.

At a mysterious estate in the Maine countryside, newly appointed nanny Kate (Mackenzie Davis) is charged with the care of two disturbed orphans, Flora (Brooklynn Prince) and Miles (Finn Wolfhard). She quickly discovers that both the children and the house are harboring dark secrets and things may not be as they appear.

The film first entered development in March 2016 and was described as a passion project for Steven Spielberg, who wanted to be involved in a scary film again. The film adaptation went through two phases of production: first as Haunted with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo attached as director, then renamed as The Turning with Floria Sigismondi.

On March 9, 2016, Deadline reported that Amblin Entertainment was hiring Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to direct Haunted, which was inspired by Henry James' 1898 gothic ghost story, The Turn Of The Screw and would be scripted by Chad Hayes and Carey Hayes with Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment, John Middleton and Scott Bernstein as the producers. Haunted, which was to shoot under the DreamWorks label, would have been one of the first new projects to move forward since DreamWorks, Amblin and Participant formed the new Amblin Partners late 2015, and DreamWorks, after distributing its movies through Disney since 2008, struck a new distribution deal with Universal.

On August 1, 2016, it was announced that Alfre Woodard had signed on to the project. Later that month, Rose Leslie joined the project as the lead.

On September 21, 2016, five weeks before shooting, Steven Spielberg personally pulled the plug on the project due to the page-one rewrite by Scott Z. Burns that caused 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 DreamWorks 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 with a new director, despite $5 million having already been spent of the $17 million budget.

On August 24, 2017, Deadline reported that Amblin Entertainment had set Floria Sigismondi to direct Haunted, now renamed as The Turning, which would feature a new draft by Jade Bartlett based on the original script by Chad Hayes and Carey Hayes. Production was expected to start in early 2018 with Scott Bernstein and Roy Lee still attached as producers. In October 2017, Mackenzie Davis signed on to portray the lead role of the nanny. In December 2017, it was announced that Finn Wolfhard was cast as one of the orphans. In January 2018, Brooklynn Prince joined the cast. In February 2018, the rest of the cast was announced as principal production commenced. The casting of Joely Richardson was announced in January 2019.

The film was originally scheduled to be released on February 22, 2019, by Universal Pictures. In September 2018, the film was removed from Universal's release schedule, with DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World being released in its place. It is scheduled to be released on January 24, 2020, with Universal releasing the film wide domestically and in select international territories.