A first look image of Helen Mirren as eccentric firearms heiress, Sarah Winchester has emerged online, with Mirren looking eerily scary in her Victorian costume reminiscent of the Queens grandmother, Queen Mary. Winchester tells the story of the eccentric firearm heiress, Sarah Winchester who believed she was being haunted by the souls of people killed by the Winchester repeating rifle. After the sudden deaths of her husband and child, she threw herself into the 24/7 construction of an enormous mansion designed to keep the evil spirits at bay. A sceptical San Francisco psychiatrist soon learns her obsession may not be insane. In an interview with People Magazine Mirren divulged she didn’t actually believe in ghosts; “I don’t believe in ghosts, but I do believe people can be haunted, and Sarah Winchester is a haunted person. That was the appeal in the role.” The film which is currently in production and directed by Daybreakers Michael and Peter Spierig will be shot at the actual Winchester mansion in San Jose, California. The Spierigs say Winchester tells a different sort of ghost story. Michael Spierig says the heiress, who died in 1922, “was an intelligent woman and a little misunderstood,” while Peter Spierig went on to say in the same interview: “Sarah Winchester is quite a remarkable woman, and the idea of her being just a crazy person who was haunted by ghosts is not the full story. Helen Mirren, in particular, I think is great in portraying that … It’s about a woman who is deeply troubled by the violence of the rifle and what she inherited. She’s trying to come to terms with that.”

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