Fox Searchlight to tell the story of upstate New York’s first haunted house

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Founded in 2011, Condé Nast Entertainment is the film division of magazine publisher Condé Nast, and part of what they do there is look through the publisher's archives, trying to find articles that might be worthy of being developed into cinematic properties. In this search, CNE has dug up a two-part article called VOICES THROUGH THE TRUMPET, written by Carl Carmer and published in The New Yorker in 1936.

The article is seventy-nine years old, but the subject Carmer wrote about goes back even further:

It takes place in the mid-1800s, the first haunted house documented in upstate New York. Two young girls, the Fox sisters, were at the center of the haunting. They remained in touch with a spirit that haunted them as they grew up. When they reached adulthood, both girls disavowed the haunting, then promptly died mysteriously. Years later, Carmer ventured back to the haunted house and the spiritualist community that sprung up around it to try to figure out what really happened, and is met with terrifying answers.

Condé Nast Entertainment is teaming with Fox Searchlight to bring Carmer's story to the screen, with J.T. Petty (THE BURROWERS) writing the script for producers Alison Greenspan, Dawn Ostroff, and Jeremy Steckler, and executive producer Denise DiNovi.

It sounds like VOICES THROUGH THE TRUMPET could be the basis of a solid supernatural thriller. Hopefully the fact that the film is based on an article from 1936 won't turn out to be the most interesting thing about it.

As you might expect, Carl Carmer didn't live to see his work being developed into a movie. He passed away in 1976.