The Turn of the Key: Max Minghella, Jamie Bell writing Ruth Ware adaptation

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Working Title has optioned the film rights to author Ruth Ware's haunted house novel The Turn of the Key (pick up a copy HERE) and actors Max Minghella and Jamie Bell are both attached to the project – but not, as of right now, to take on acting roles in the film. Minghella and Bell are going to be writing the screenplay together.

While The Turn of the Key will earn Bell his first writing credit, Minghella has previously written the films The 9th Life of Louis Drax (directed by Alexandre Aja) and Teen Spirit (which Minghella directed himself). Bell was an executive producer on Teen Spirit.

The Turn of the Key tells the story of 

a young woman who stumbles across an ad to take on a position as a live-in nanny at a high-tech ‘smart’ house in the Scottish Highlands. In spite of the extremely generous salary, a beautiful location, an incredible home and the seemingly picture-perfect family, it soon becomes clear that all is not what it seems.

Which makes this the third smart house horror film to be announced in the last three weeks. Alice Braga is going to be terrorized by a smart house's AI system in the Netflix thriller Ivy and Steven C. Miller is directing a film called Margaux, which is about college friends being terrorized by a smart house's AI system. A couple years ago, Maika Monroe starred in a sci-fi thriller called Tau, in which she interacted with a smart house's AI system. At least The Turn of the Key has a title that breaks the pattern.

The Turn of the Key is being produced by Working Title's Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. Amelia Granger and Alexandra Lowey are overseeing the development of the project for Working Title.

Ware had this to say about the film deal: 

Working Title have been responsible for some of my favourite on-screen characters and stories, so I am completely thrilled that The Turn of the Key has found a home with them, and I can’t wait to watch them bring their trademark creative flair and breadth of imagination to the project."