Helen Mirren will tackle ghouls and gun violence in Winchester, a thriller based on the true story of the heiress to the Winchester weapons fortune, who fast-tracked the construction of a mansion because she believed it would hold off the spirits of the victims of the family business, according to Deadline.
Directed by Predestination’s Michael and Peter Spierig, the film will detail how, shortly after the death of her husband and baby daughter, Sarah Winchester enlisted carpenters to work 24/7 on expanding her San Jose home in California. Winchester was allegedly told by a spirit medium that extending the mansion was necessary to prevent her own death, but she continued building off-and-on for 38 years before she died of heart failure at 83.
The film will centre on the arrival of Eric Price, a San Francisco psychiatrist who is dubious about the claims that “the Winchester mystery house” is haunted. After he arrives he is confronted with a host of ghosts and the true cost of gun violence. It is not known who will play Price.
The construction of the mystery house, which is now a tourist attraction, was funded by Winchester’s 50% stake in the gun manufacturer bearing her family name, which netted her about $22,000 (£17,000) a day in today’s money. There are close to 160 rooms, including 40 bedrooms, two ballrooms and three elevators.
The house was badly damaged in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It got its “mystery house” tag from a newspaper article about a 1924 visit by Harry Houdini, who was reportedly attempting to communicate with the mansion’s otherworldly inhabitants.
