The Conjuring franchise has become a smash-hit horror series, but here’s why the first film took almost 20 years to make–and why it took even longer to settle its rights disputes. After decades of dealing with what they believed to be other-worldly phenomena, Ed and Lorraine Warren had plenty of subject matter to pull from for a creative portrayal of their work. And after trying to get a movie made about their experiences for quite a while, Ed was finally able to do so in either the 1980s or 1990s.
According to SlashFilm.com, this was when he first teamed up with movie producer Tony DeRosa-Grund. After Ed played him a recording of interviews with the Perron family (who are featured in the first film), he decided to go to bat for the piece. He wrote the Conjuring franchise’s very first treatment, and things were moving in the right direction for the project to come to fruition. Gold Circle Films agreed to take it on, but the deal ultimately fell through. DeRosa-Grund later allied with another producer and two screenwriters on behalf of the film, and an actual script was crafted. This version of the story was the first to feature the main Conjuring model that’s now known and loved–one where Ed and Lorraine are the focal points.
Even with that detail ironed out, more problems lay ahead. A bidding war followed and another deal–this time with Summit Entertainment–ultimately fell through. And, after that, a lengthy pair of rights disputes also drew the film’s production out. In 2011, New Line Cinema had picked up the movie and director James Wan was at the helm. But DeRosa-Grund and Lionsgate were revealed to have agreed on a TV series that would use the Conjuring name. The producer still had the rights to the title after being involved with the piece from the beginning, and he had pitched the show while The Conjuring had been briefly renamed as The Warren Files. But the title was switched back, which was good for creating an entire franchise universe down the road. But, because of this, New Line and Warner Bros. (the former is a label of the latter) pointed out that the film would be released before the TV series. Therefore, they thought it shouldn’t be allowed to use the same name. The companies legally duked it out with DeRosa-Grund via arbitration. Despite the fact that the movie was released in 2013, New Line and Warner Bros. didn’t finally win its rights until 2015.
But that wasn’t the last legal battle over the film. Some of those who had worked with the Warrens in The Conjuring’s early days continued to battle for what they believed to have rights to. Gerald Brittle, who collaborated with and authored a 1980 book about the Warrens– entitled The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren–filed a suit against Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, and James Wan. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he sued in 2016 because he claimed The Conjuring would infringe upon a contract he had with the couple regarding his book’s subject matter.
Warner Bros. finally settled with Brittle out of court in 2017. But it would later turn out that the film’s two major disputes were connected. DeRosa-Grund was behind the Brittle lawsuit. That year, Deadline quoted Brittle as admitting, “Mr. DeRosa-Grund has been controlling this Litigation from the start.” Becoming aware of how messy and legally rigorous the process of getting the franchise’s debut made was really highlights the headache-inducing aspects of movie-making. Though The Conjuring would usher in a monstrously lucrative and beloved horror series, its creation was no small feat–and Warner Bros.’ battle for the rights to it even managed to extend past the first film’s actual release date.
