One of the most disappointing things about true crime, other than the pure depravity and cruelty, is the complete and total lack of masks. Seriously, other than the Zodiac, has any real killer rocked a trademark mask? You know who appreciates the value of a striking mask? Scott Derrickson, that’s who. The writer/director brought us one of the most recognizable horror masks of the last decade with his surprise smash hit horror film The Black Phone back in 2021. Of course, it wasn’t all the mask. No, Derrickson’s obvious talent for horror mixed with a stellar cast lead by Ethan Hawke were obviously the driving force behind that film’s $160M box office take…but I’m sure the cool mask didn’t hurt.
That 9 figure box office was bolstered even further thanks to the Blumhouse method of film making, make ’em good and make ’em cheap. Their fiscal responsibility during production led to The Black Phone becoming one of the most profitable films of its release year. If there’s one thing you can guarantee about films on the most profitable list, its that there WILL be a sequel. Thanks to Deadline we now know that a sequel has been green lit and is headed toward production. There being a sequel isn’t much of a surprise, what is surprising is that they managed to get the entire principal cast to return. Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw and Jeremy Davies are all signed on. While Derrickson himself hasn’t been named as the director at this point he is co-writing and producing the film. With a theatrical release slated for June 27th, 2025 we can expect the film to go into production sometime this coming summer.
Maybe The Black Phone hitting headlines again will remind all the bigtime studio suits that you don’t need to spend $100M to make a great film. Jason Blum really needs to teach a class on production frugality. It seems like once a month we have some film that made over $100M being called a failure because it cost $300M to produce. Sure, films from the MCU are going to be markedly more expensive then a small-scale horror film but you’re crazy if you think they couldn’t trim those budgets and finish with the same result. [Deadline]
