Panabaker & The Ward

Last Updated on July 26, 2021

Back at the beginning of February I told you all about John Carpenter’s return to the director’s chair in THE WARD
(read our script review here). Then at the beginning of March our man Eric got a glimpse at the script! He was all in all satisfied and I’m going to go ahead and trust the man’s
judgment… especially since I’m a huge Carpenter fan. Here’s the synopsis:

In a nameless 1959 town, a young woman named Kristen is found, crazed, in the woods before a burning church. She’s taken to a foreboding psychiatric hospital run by the ominous Dr. Stringer, where she meets an eccentric group of half-nutty girls, as well as a couple of unsavory orderlies. But it’s when the lights go out that things get really unsettling, as Kristen begins to see a ghostly figure roaming the halls – and even entering her room. Before long Kristen wises up to the fact that Chamberlain Psychiatric Hospital contains a very dark secret – and everyone but her seems to know what it is…

Now the only casting announced so far has been the gorgeous Amber Heard as the lead, but that changes today with two more names joining the crazy house. More notably genre hottie Danielle Panabaker has signed up to play ‘a patient in the institution, a snobbish girl who flirts with orderlies and faces electroshock therapy.’ Mamie Gummer will also be playing a patient of the hospital. Some of Panabaker’s (pictured) credits include MR. BROOKS, FRIDAY THE 13TH, and the upcoming CRAZIES remake. Gummer’s list of credits is a little less impressive with flicks like STOP-LOSS and THE HOAX.

Echo Lake Entertainment and A Bigger Boat are bringing us this one with a script from Michael and Shawn Rasmussen with rewrites by Jim Agnew and Sean Keller. Principal photography is set to start next month in Washington for Carpenter’s hopefully successful return to the genre so make sure you keep it here for updates!