What a way to end a week of chaos! Lee Daniels and Mo’Nique have seemingly ended their years-long feud as he’s tapped her to star in his upcoming Netflix film, Demon House.
As Deadline reports, she is taking over the role from Octavia Spencer, who exited the project due to scheduling conflicts with season 3 of Apple TV+’s Truth Be Told.
As we reported back in January, Netflix beat out multiple buyers for the untitled project, winning it for $65 million.
As we reported back in January, Netflix beat out multiple buyers for the untitled project, winning it for $65 million.
The film, which has gestated for years, also sees will see Daniels reunite with his The United States vs Billie Holiday star Andra Day, who will lead the film as character based on Ammons alongside Mo’Nique, Glenn Close, Rob Morgan, Caleb McLaughlin and Aunjanue Ellis.
Daniels is producing with Tucker Tooley and Pam Williams. Drafts were written by Dave Coggeshall and Elijah Bynum, with Daniels rewriting for the most recent version.
The project has long been in the works
Prior to the film’s announcement in January, we last reported on the project around 2014. It is inspired by the story of Gary, Indiana-based Ammons who, in 2011, claimed that her children were being attacked and possessed by demons.
Relativity Media was initially the studio behind it and Ammons optioned her rights. Daniels collaborator Tooley then retrieved the rights after Relativity went into bankruptcy. Now,
Zak Bagans of Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures,” filmed an episode at “The Demon House” as it was called, which is the Gary house in 2014.
The mother of three told police that she witnessed her children walking up walls, levitating and speaking in different voices. She further claimed that she once found her seven-year-old son inside a closet talking to another boy only he could see. When she asked what they were talking about, Ammons claimed that he told her the unseen presence was describing what it felt like to be killed. The young boy was also reportedly thrown by a “malevolent spirit” out of a bathroom, and her 12-year-old daughter required stitches to her head after an attack.
More on the real-life story:
State documents filed by the Department of Children Services detailed further strange events at the house, which were said to have been witnessed by medical experts and people outside the family.
The family would eventually move out of their house. The Gary home would eventually be demolished. Bagans had the purported “demon house” destroyed.
“Something was inside that house that had the ability to do things that I have never seen before — things that others carrying the highest forms of credibility couldn’t explain either,” he told the Indianapolis Star. “There was something there that was very dark yet highly intelligent and powerful.”
