The Turn of the Screw was first published in serial format in Collier’s Weekly magazine between January 27 and April 16, 1898. It is a horror novella written by Henry James, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912 and 1916 and also author of The Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, and The Wings of the Dove. The book tells the story of how a young governess is hired by a man who has become responsible for his young nephew and niece after the deaths of their parents. He lives mainly in London but also has a country house, Bly, and he is uninterested in raising the children.
The novel has had several adaptations in literature, television, theatre, opera plays and also film, including Jack Clayton’s The Innocents (1961), Antoni Aloy’s Presence of Mind (1999), and Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others (2001). Now, music videos director Floria Sigismondi, who has also been responsible for The Runaways (2010) and episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale (2017– ) and Daredevil (2015–2018), has directed a new version of The Turn of the Screw novel, entitled The Turning (2020).
The adaptation screenplay The Turning (2020) has been written by Carey W. Hayes and Chad Hayes, writers of House of Wax (2005), The Reaping (2007), The Conjuring (2013) and its sequel The Conjuring 2 (2016). Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard, Brooklynn Prince, Karen Egan, Mark Huberman, Niall Greig Fulton, Kim Adis, Barbara Marten, and Denna Thomsen star the film.
In The Turning (2020), which is staged in the current times, at a mysterious estate in the Maine countryside, newly appointed nanny Kate (Mackenzie Davis) is charged with the care of two disturbed orphans, Flora (Brooklynn Prince) and Miles (Finn Wolfhard). She quickly discovers that both the children and the house are harboring dark secrets and things may not be as they appear. This is only one of two adaptations of Henry James‘ novel to be released in 2020. The other is the second season of Netflix‘s Haunting of Bly Manor (2020) series by Mike Flanagan.
Filming began on February 14, 2018 in Ireland, and it was completed on April 6, 2018. The Turning (2020) is scheduled to be released on January 24, 2020 with Universal releasing the film worldwide. Here you can watch the official trailer:
