‘American Gods,’ ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Director Floria Sigismondi Helming Henry James Adaptation ‘The Turning’

You know those film-director pairings that immediately scream the final result is going to be more than perfect? Floria Sigismundi, director of episodes of American Gods and The Handmaid’s Tale, and director of The Runaways, is helming Amblin’s adaptation of Henry James’ gothic ghost story The Turn of the Screw.

Deadline reports that the film is titled The Turning, and will be a “contemporized” version of the ghost story, with a hopeful production start sometime in early 2018. Chad and Carey Hayes, horror screenwriters responsible for The Conjuring, the House of Wax remake, and The Reaping, are adapting the script.

Sigismondi is best known as a director of music videos, and has worked with the likes of David Bowie, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, The White Stripes, Katy Perry, and Marilyn Manson. Her film debut was 2010’s The Runaways, and she most recently helmed a couple episodes of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and the season finale (the best, weirdest episode) of American Gods.

The Turn of the Screw is a gothic ghost story about a governess who comes to the house of a man who has become responsible for his sister’s children after their mother’s untimely death. She begins to see spirits around the house, but no one else seems to see them. It’s been adapted into films and TV shows many times before, the most famous being Jack Clayton’s The Innocents, but hasn’t yet had a contemporary take until now.