EXCLUSIVE: Chad and Carey Hayes, the creators of the mega-successful Conjuring franchise, are teaming with Cindy Bond and Doug McKay’s recently launched outfit Faster Horse Pictures on a series of haunted mansion horror movies.

The planned franchise will be built around the real-life LaLaurie Mansion in New Orleans, one of the most notorious ‘haunted houses’ in the world, which hasn’t allowed any public access since 1932. Despite that, thousands of tourists still travel to the city every year to visit the property.

The house was made infamous by its resident Madame Lalaurie, a New Orleans socialite and serial killer who tortured and murdered numerous slaves there in the early 1800s. After her crimes were exposed following a house fire in 1834, she fled the city and was never arrested.

The building has had several owners (including the actor Nicolas Cage, according to reports) but is now owned by Michael Whalen, a partner and collaborator with Faster Horse, who is providing access. The Hayes brothers have visited the property and are considering writing the first draft of the screenplay inside the house itself, and the production intends to shoot partially on-site.

The Conjuring franchise, produced by New Line and released by Warner Bros, has grossed $1.9bn globally across its various entries, including the Annabelle spin-offs. The Hayes brothers wrote the first two films in the initial series.

The ‘LaLaurie Mansion’ films will be developed and produced by Chad Hayes and Carey Hayes, Doug McKay, Cindy Bond and Michael Whalen. Joshua Ryan Dietz and Dylan Bond will serve as executive producers. Local historian Andrew Ward is consulting on the project.

We recently revealed that Bond and McKay had formed LA film and TV firm Faster Horse and the company’s first movie would be Tate Taylor opioids drama American Pain.

”Building a horror franchise starts with the IP, and for us to be able to tap the LaLaurie Mansion, and its twisted history, is a major coup for Faster Horse,” commented Bond on the deal.

“The LaLaurie Mansion is as scary a place as there is in the world and we won’t hold back in giving audiences the full effect. Chad and Carey will have their hands full, but they are true masters in cinematic retellings of disturbing material,” added McKay.

“We love writing films in which we get to tell true stories – incorporating moments that people can look up and discover did in fact happen. With the LaLaurie House we get to do exactly that. There is a wealth of documentation of a very dark and frightening past of true events. Not to mention that after spending some time there, what we personally experienced was truly unnerving,” said the Hayes brothers.

David Boyle negotiated the deal for Faster Horse. Chad Hayes and Carey Hayes are represented by Circle of Confusion and law firm McKuin Frankel Whitehead.