According To James Wan, The Conjuring's Crooked Man Spin-Off Is No Longer Happening
Well, today James Wan decided to bum out the horror community.
Shortly after "The Conjuring 2" hit screens, we were promised a spin-off focusing on one of the creepiest dang things ever portrayed in that universe: The Crooked Man. We got a movie about "The Nun" that made a ton of money (even if it wasn't exactly well-received), so you'd think the Crooked Man movie would have been a no-brainer.
For one thing, it's one of the best-designed monsters of the last ten or so years and the supernatural spooky potential for this dude is through the roof. But this thing has been in some form of development for 5 years now, and Wan finally today laid it to rest with an Instagram post praising his constant man-in-suit performer, Javier Botet, who filled the Crooked Man's slender frame in "The Conjuring 2," and was, presumably, going to portray the horror villain in the spin-off.
The post showed off a behind-the-scenes picture of the writer-director with Botet in costume, proving that Botet's unique physique was responsible for your nightmares, not CGI wizardry. The post concludes with Wan's confirmation of that the spin-off is no longer in the works: "Unfortunately the spin-off movie with this character isn't happening. But maybe one day."
There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile
Horror is about as big as it has ever been at the current moment, with films like "Barbarian," "Smile," and, yes, even "Halloween Ends" posting up huge box office numbers, so don't totally rule out a Crooked Man film forever. It's clear Wan has the desire to make the movie and even made sure to put a "maybe one day" bit of hope at the end of his bad news IG post.
The question is why "The Crooked Man" didn't happen. Was it a creative thing? Perhaps nobody cracked the story and Wan wasn't satisfied with the attempts at development over the last five years. Or maybe the studio just plain isn't interested in financing it. It could also be some combination of those two things. Whatever the reason, it's on pause for now, but Wan never seems to rest so there's hope.
He's certainly a cinematic monster. If you remember, he's spawned from the haunted Zoetrope toy that the Warrens look after, which is a visually great thing to tie this super creepy dude to. And my man is tied to a nursery rhyme, too. He's got all the horror bases covered.
Wan has said his thought for the spin-off would fall into a dark fairy tale world, which could be a bit more costly than a standard ghost story, so maybe that's why the project is currently dead. I don't know, it sounds pretty cool to me, so hopefully "The Crooked Man" is resurrected at some point. I know I'd want to see it.