By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Last week, RUE MORGUE spoke with Blumhouse Productions’ Ryan Turek about NIGHT SWIM, the new film the company produced with James Wan’s Atomic Monster. We also took the opportunity to ask Turek about some of the future films on Blumhouse’s well-stocked slate of genre fare…
Out of Blumhouse’s upcoming films, I’m especially curious about SPEAK NO EVIL, as I’m a big fan of the Danish original (pictured above). If I’m not mistaken, this is the first remake of a foreign film that Blumhouse has done.
I think so, yeah.
What went into making it relevant for an American audience?
Oh, you’ll have to see, man. I saw a cut of it, and the movie is phenomenal. [Writer/director] James Watkins was so right to do this. Just to get kind of super-geeky, I saw his movie EDEN LAKE at Screamfest, and when I watched that for the first time, I had to walk out, because it was so intense. There’s one specific scene involving fire where I was just like, this movie is so mean-spirited. I mean, for me, it was too much! That night, I just felt, I’m not wired for this movie right now. Then I wound up rewatching it when it was released and thought it was really great and tightly wound and intense, and I can say that Watkins applies that same sensibility to this.
I think the original SPEAK NO EVIL is fantastic. I remember watching it and coming out and kissing my wife on the forehead and saying, “I love you so much!” because it’s such a downer, you just want to hug a loved one real tight! The new one definitely doesn’t lose that mean streak; it’s pretty awesome. And the cast [led by James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy] is so good!
Speaking of remakes, you recently announced the exciting news that Leigh Whannell (pictured above) is back on THE WOLF MAN, with Christopher Abbott (and now Julia Garner) starring.
Yeah, it’s gonna be awesome. I don’t want to get myself in trouble, but I’m very excited about it. Leigh is an incredible filmmaker, and I think [Whannell’s] THE INVISIBLE MAN is going to grow to be a classic over time. You know, INVISIBLE MAN came out just before lockdown, and it built up a lot of buzz, but then COVID came along and sucked the air out of the room. But people have been finding it, and I’m seeing INVISIBLE MAN pop up on scariest-movie-scene lists and stuff like that, which is awesome. So Leigh is going to bring the same kind of craft and scares and cleverness to WOLF MAN that he brought to THE INVISIBLE MAN. It’s his new take on the classic wolfman story.
INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR became the most successful film yet in that series, so are there plans to continue that story in another movie?
Oh man, I don’t know! Obviously, never say never, but right now we’re not actively working on another INSIDIOUS. But it was awesome to see that the audience is still very interested in that world and The Further, and it certainly helped that we returned to the Lambert family and following Dalton and Josh’s father-son drama. And of course, THREAD: AN INSIDIOUS TALE is a new film we’re working on that is kind of an offshoot, so that’s going to continue the franchise.
Looking at M3GAN 2.0, considering how M3GAN’s dance went viral ahead of the release of the first one, it would seem like that would be a hard act to follow, in terms of finding that next thing that’s going to take the character to the next level.
I know, but we’ve got amazing brains on it. It’s [writer] Akela Cooper and [director] Gerard Johnstone, and James Wan and Blum all coming back, really smart people putting together M3GAN’s next adventure. That’s still on track for January 2025.
How’s THE BLACK PHONE 2 coming along?
Good. We made our announcement about the cast returning, and now we’re just letting [Scott] Derrickson and [C. Robert] Cargill work their creative magic. I was actually just thinking about this the other day, about how excited I am about it, because it’s bringing all the original players back for one more go. I’m excited to see what they come back to us with.
Are they talking to original short-story author Joe Hill about ideas for it?
I can’t imagine that Derrickson and Cargill are not talking to Joe about it. I think that’ll be a key component of it. I mean, I haven’t talked to those guys in a little bit, but I’m sure they are.
I have to ask: There were rumblings about a new director taking over for David Gordon Green on the next EXORCIST film. Is there any truth to that?
Not that I know of. I can’t say much more than that, other than we’re still proceeding on course. David’s doing a comedy right now, so when he returns, we’ll discuss.
What else do you have coming up that you can talk about?
We’re super-active in development on a lot of fun things. DEAD BY DAYLIGHT is still in play, and we’re just figuring out the creative angle on that. Obviously, as with FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S, we want to be very careful with any kind of video-game adaptation we’re tackling. I’m super-excited about that, because I’m a huge fan and player of the game. And beyond that, we’ve got a bunch of things in the pipeline, but the big items right now are WOLF MAN, M3GAN 2.0 and BLACK PHONE 2.
Has another FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S been given the go-ahead yet?
No, not yet. FIVE NIGHTS did very well, but nothing for sure about a sequel yet. Stay tuned!
