Peterborough author lands Netflix deal
Sam Raimi to produce the screen adaptation of an Ian Rogers story
Peterborough-based horror writer Ian Rogers has signed a deal with Netflix that will see his short story “The House on Ashley Avenue” turned into a feature-length film.
The movie will be produced by Sam Raimi — best known for his cult horror film “Evil Dead” and the Spider-Man trilogy from the early 2000s — and Zainab Azizi for Raimi Productions, and Roy Lee, executive producer of “The Ring” and “It,” for Vertigo Entertainment.
“It really is a dream come true,” said Rogers, who has been writing since he was a teenager.
“Having Raimi say he’s a fan of my work, and he’s going to help adapt one of my stories, it doesn’t get much better than that.”
“The House on Ashley Avenue” originally appeared in Rogers’ debut book “Every House is Haunted” in 2012, which was a collection of short stories. The book won the 2013 ReLit Award for short fiction, and “The House on Ashley Avenue” was nominated for the 2012 Shirley Jackson Award as a novelette and included in
“The Best Horror of the Year Volume 5.”
From there it caught the attention of Lee, who brought the story to NBC in 2016, which optioned the show notes for a potential TV series. A script for a pilot was written by Jason Pagan and Andrew Deutschman, but that’s as far as it got.
“NBC didn’t want to shoot the pilot, and it just sort of died on the floor, which a lot of projects do at that stage,” said Rogers.
Lee kept the story in mind and brought it to Raimi’s attention while filming the remake of the classic horror movie “Poltergeist.”
“Roy gave the story to Sam and said, ‘I tried to make this work as a TV show and it didn’t work, maybe you can try it as a film,’” Rogers said.
“I’m pretty confident it’s going to make a big splash.” IAN ROGERS
Over the next two years, the project started taking shape. Raimi hired Pagan and Deutschman to write the script and brought on Corin Hardy from “The Nun” as director. In March, Raimi started pitching the movie to studios, and within the month there was a bidding war that ended with Netflix obtaining the rights.
“That just shows you long it can take, and then how suddenly things can move,” said Rogers.
Rogers says he was “blown away” when he heard about Netflix coming on board with the project and sees it as a win during the pandemic where theatrical releases of movies are hit and miss.
“There’s a lot less pressure now, having to worry about if this movie was going to open really big at the box office on opening weekend,” Rogers said. “Now, with a streaming network, it can be on Netflix for years, and find its audience that way, even if it’s not a big hit right away. With this team of people though, I’m pretty confident it’s going to make a big splash.”
Rogers will serve as a consultant for the film, something not all writers get the chance to do when their work is picked up for movies or TV shows.
“It means a lot that they want me to have a role in this thing, it means they value my feedback and any additional creativity I can bring to it,” he says.
Netflix hasn’t mentioned when production will start, but Rogers says people can expect something different when they watch it. “I think it’s going to make you rethink what a haunted house story is like,” Rogers said. “This is like a reimagining or a renovation of a haunted house story.”