BREAKING: New Line has tapped Michael Chaves to direct The Conjuring 3 as James Wan steps away from directing duties on the franchise, Deadline has confirmed. Wan, who has Aquaman coming out this Christmas, will continue to produce Conjuring 3 under his Atomic Monster label alongside Peter Safran via his Safran Company.
Chaves recently directed the studio's upcoming April 19 release The Curse of La Llorona, a pic that's not in The Conjuring universe. Chaves made his feature directorial on that pic. and Conjuring 3 of course reunites him with New Line and Atomic Monster, who also produced that movie. Chaves was discovered after directing the award-winning horror short The Maiden. La Llorona's logline: Ignoring the eerie warning of a troubled mother suspected of child endangerment, a social worker and her own small kids are drawn into a frightening supernatural realm.
The Conjuring 2 writer David Leslie Johnson returns to pen the threequel, which centers on 1970s paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.
Wan's Conjuring movies launched a genre franchise that has minted $1.57 billion for Warner Bros.' New Line, with the recent spinoff The Nun becoming the highest-grossing title in the universe with over $330M worldwide.