Helen Mirren To Play Winchester Mystery House Heiress In New Film

SAN JOSE - Expect a crowd outside the Winchester Mystery House when actress Helen Mirren comes to San Jose to film her lead role as the enigmatic Sarah Winchester in a just-announced movie.

SFist says Mirren will arrive for location shoots at the Mystery House on a new thriller film sometime in 2017.

Australian directors Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig are writing and directing the film with the working title of Winchester according to SFist.

Sarah Winchester was the millionaire heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune who moved west in 1884 and bought property three miles west of San Jose.

There, according to the Winchester Mystery House website, Sarah Winchester built a never-to-be-finished house to appease spirits who allegedly haunted her.

Here's a portion of the WMH posted information about Sarah Winchester:

According to some sources, the Boston Medium consulted by Mrs. Winchester explained that her family and her fortune were being haunted by spirits – in fact, by the spirits of American Indians, Civil War soldiers, and others killed by Winchester rifles. Supposedly the untimely deaths of her daughter and husband were caused by these spirits, and it was implied that Mrs. Winchester might be the next victim.

However, the medium also claimed that there was an alternative, Mrs. Winchester was instructed to move west and appease the spirits by building a great house for them. As long as construction of the house never ceased, Mrs. Winchester could rest assured that her life was not in danger. Building such a house was even supposed to bring her eternal life.

She immediately hired carpenters to work in shifts around the clock. By the turn of the century the eight-room house had grown into a seven-story mansion! The estate eventually grew to 161 acres of farmland, which included orchards of apricots, plum, and walnut trees to supplement Mrs. Winchester’s income. She also owned homes in Atherton, Los Altos, and Palo Alto.

Neighbors would hear a bell ring at midnight and 2 a.m., which according to ghost lore are the times for the arrival and departure of spirits. Some said that Mrs. Winchester never slept in the same bedroom two nights in a row, in order to confuse any evil spirits that might be waiting for her. At the very center of the house is the Blue Room, where Mrs. Winchester supposedly would go every night to commune with the spirits. This room consisted of a cabinet, a table with pen and papers, a closet, and a planchette board – used for transmitting messages from the beyond. Legend has it that she would wear one of 13 special colored robes and receive guidance from various spirits for her construction plans.

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