Patrick Wilson Speaks Out on Directing the Next Conjuring Movie (Exclusive)

Patrick Wilson, the beloved actor recognized for his work not just in Blumhouse horror franchises, but in movies like Aquaman and Hard Candy, is making his directorial debut this week with Insidious: The Red Door. The latest installment in the series will mark the end of the Lambert family saga, reuniting Wilson with his onscreen family, including Iron Man 3‘s Ty Simpkins and Bridesmaids‘s Rose Byrne. The natural next question, of course, is whether Wilson might want to take a stab at directing a movie in The Conjuring series. Launched in 2013, The Conjuring came after Insidious but Wilson is even more closely associated with the series, in which he plays a heavily fictionalized version of real-world paranormal investigator Ed Warren.

Speaking with ComicBook.com in support of Insidious: The Red Door, Wilson admitted he would want to see a script for The Conjuring‘s next outing before deciding if it was something he felt comfortable directing. He says while he’s confident the writing will be good, he would want to make sure it was something he could personally relate to before committing to being behind the camera.

“The thing is, I don’t know,” Wilson told ComicBook.com’s Chris Killian. “All those guys are obviously my friends and I know them well and I wouldn’t dare try to pitch myself for something I didn’t feel passionate about. So the honest to God truth, and I really mean this, and it sounds so lame, but I would have to see the story. I know we’ll be taken care of as characters and actors. I love those movies so much. I love David Leslie Johnson and all the writing that he’s done. That being said, if I’ve learned anything from this movie, it’s hwat James told me, which is, ‘Make it yours. Make it personal.’ So I know that the next movie that I will choose to do or that chooses me, it will have to be something extremely personal that I can shape to things that I believe in. I can do this movie becuase I geared it around a father/son. A kid in art school like I went to. I went to theatre college. So there were things that I felt like I had a deep passion for, becuase I am all in. There hasn’t been a day in four years that I haven’t thought about this movie. So I have to make sure that, whether it’s Conjuring or any other movie, there’s a different requirement as a director. Regardless of just technically speaking, just, does it speak to you as a director?”

In Insidious: The Red Door, the horror franchise’s original cast returns for the final chapter of the Lambert family’s terrifying saga. To put their demons to rest once and for all, Josh (Patrick Wilson) and a college-aged Dalton (Ty Simpkins) must go deeper into The Further than ever before, facing their family’s dark past and a host of new and more horrifying terrors that lurk behind the red door.

Insidious: The Red Door will be in theaters on Friday.