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EXCLUSIVE: The blood lines run deep through The Nun, the Corin Hardy-directed New Line thriller that is a spinoff to its highly successful fright franchise The Conjuring. New Line has just set Taissa Farmiga to star as the young nun alongside Demián Bichir in the film. She is the sister of Vera Farmiga, who with Patrick Wilson play the paranormal investigators who anchor the James Wan-directed The Conjuring.

New Line

The Nun takes its form from the steely-looking nun from The Conjuring 2, an image that rears up unpleasant memories for anyone like myself who spent time at the mercy of the sisters in Catholic school. The Nun is the second spinoff from The Conjuring after Annabelle, which is being sequelized after grossing a frightfully high $256 million worldwide. In fact, that film and the two installments of The Conjuring have scared up a collective global gross of $897 million, with Annabelle: Creation coming August 11. James Wan and Peter Safran are producing The Nun, which Gary Dauberman scripted with Wan. Dauberman and Todd Williams are the exec producers. The film already has been dated for release Friday the 13th, in July 2018.

Taissa Farmiga is in production on What They Had, which stars Michael Shannon and Hilary Swank, and recently was in the Warren Beatty-directed Rules Don’t Apply and in the Blumhouse revenge thriller In a Valley of Violence. She is repped by ICM Partners and Anonymous Content.