Movies
A Bigger Boat Puts Down Payment on ‘House at the End of the Street’
Update: Title corrected. A Bigger Boat, producer Peter Block’s new company, has been making some serious headlines over the past year. With their incredible thriller Frozen opening in theaters next month, and The Ward (John Carpenter’s big return to horror) in post-production, it appears the producer behind the Saw franchise is nearly unstoppable. It was announced today that A Bigger Boat will be teaming with FilmNation Entertainment for a new psychological thriller in the vein of Psycho entitled House at the End of the Street. Read on for the skinny.
FilmNation Entertainment and A Bigger Boat are combining to finance and produce “House at the End of the Street,” a psychological thriller based on a story written by Jonathan Mostow.
The film will be directed by Mark Tonderai from a David Loucka script. Tonderai helmed “Hush,” a Pathe/IFC-distributed thriller that won a British Independent Film Award.
Pic is described as a thriller in the vein of “Psycho,” aimed at a contemporary young audience.
A Bigger Boat’s Peter Block will produce with FilmNation’s Aaron Ryder, Mostow and Hal Lieberman.
The film had been set up at Universal and developed through the discretionary fund of Mostow/Lieberman. The producers, who subsequently split up, got the picture in turnaround and set it to be co-financed by FilmNation’s Glen Basner and GreeneStreet Films, which partners with Block in A Bigger Boat.
Intention is to start production later this year. That will likely make the film the first production for FilmNation since Basner formed the venture in 2008 as an international sales arm and brought Ryder in shortly after to start a production division. Block just wrapped the John Carpenter-directed thriller “The Ward” as well as “Frozen.”
We believe this will be to ‘Psycho’ what ‘Disturbia’ was to ‘Rear Window,’ but with the addition of a strong female lead,” Ryder said.
In related news, Block has taken U.S. rights to J. Blakeson’s kidnapping thriller “The Disappearance of Alice Creed,” starring Gemma Arterton, which preemed in Toronto.
Film will be released by Anchor Bay, with whom he has a relationship.
Adrian Sturges produced and CinemaNX’s Steve Christian and Marc Samuelson were executive producers and will self-distribute in the U.K. WestEnd Films handles international sales.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
‘Ready or Not’: Radio Silence Filmmakers Tease the “Absolute Banger” of a Sequel That’s Taking Shape
Looking for New Episodes of “Chucky” on Peacock? Here’s What Changed
‘Sting’ Review – Throwback Creature Feature Entertains With an Impressive Practical Monster
“We Built Every Creature” – ‘Alien: Romulus’ Goes Heavy on the Old School Practical Effects!
You must be logged in to post a comment.