Last we heard (back in May), Nicolas Winding Refn was hovering around LA's Cecil Hotel with the idea to directing The Bringing. Circumstances have changed since then, however, and the latest director in the frame for the true-events-inspired chiller is In Fear's Jeremy Lovering.
The film is based on the strange case of 21 year-old Canadian student Elisa Lam, who was found dead in the water tanks on the roof of the Cecil, a month after her disappearance in January last year. The coroner's verdict was accidental drowning, but a video of her odd behaviour in one of the hotel's elevators hours before her death later went viral, and led worldwide conspiracy theorists and hauntologists to believe they know better.
Adding to the spook factor is the notion that serial killers Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterweger were both reportedly residents at the hotel at one point or another. The Main Street establishment has changed its name to Stay On Main to try to leave these associations behind, but it's clearly not working. You're Next director Adam Wingard even reported his own troubling experiences (slamming doors, lifts working on their own) in the building in a series of tweets last year. You'd think that'd make him the man for the** Bringing** job, but maybe he's too scared... or has reasonable concerns about the project's good taste.
The Bringing's narrative will involve a detective investigating Lam's death and "the nightmare he stumbles into". What that nightmare entails remains to be seen, as indeed does what's being Brought.
Lovering directed the Sherlock episode The Empty Hearse as well as the aforementioned 2013 FrightFest hit In Fear. Newcomers Brandon and Philip Murphy wrote The Bringing's screenplay, and Matthew Tolmach (both Amazing Spider-Mans) is among the producers. Lam's "story" is thought to be a top priority at Sony, so expect this to move quickly.