'The Conjuring' spinoff movie 'Annabelle' casts new actors and announces January 27, 2014, filming start date

2013's hit horror movie The Conjuring has spawned a spinoff film that is set to start filming at the end of this month. Entitled Annabelle and based off of the creepy, possessed doll from the original film, the new movie is set to start production on January 27, 2014. Coincidentally, the lead actress in the film shares a name with the scary doll. Annabelle Wallis (The Tudors, Pan Am) will lead the cast in the upcoming horror film with The Conjuring cinematographer John Leonetti directing the spinoff.

Variety broke this story, also stating that Ward Horton (One Life to Live) will star alongside Wallis, but Conjuring alums Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga will not be returning.

There are no updates on the script or the plot of this spinoff and considering Annabelle only appeared in the opening of The Conjuring, there isn't much to go on. According to earlier speculation though, Annabelle will most likely serve as some sort of prequel to The Conjuring.

IGN recently reported:

"Annabelle is based on the real life story of a pair of nursing students who claimed their doll was possessed by a ghost. The tale concluded - both as it was reported in real life and in the fictionalized account in The Conjuring - when famed ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren discovered the doll was inhabited not by a benign spirit but by a demonic entity bent on taking the girls' souls."

This new franchise of horror films is thanks to an incredible box office performance and audiences' desire for more. A sequel to The Conjuring is currently in the works as are two other spinoffs besides Annabelle.