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Malevolent Entities Will Arise as ‘Saw’ Creators Reteam for ‘Insidious’!

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Some exciting news was reported here on Bloody Disgusting back on January 20 as we were among the first to tell you that Saw co-creator James Wan would be getting behind the camera for Insidious (formerly The Further), a new horror thriller being produced by Jason Blum (Blumhouse), Oren Peli (director of Paranormal Activity, Area 51) and Steven Schneider (Room 101) in the first of many films (read on for more info). Variety confirmed this news adding that Wan will be reteaming with Saw co-creator and long time friend Leigh Whannell, who will pen the screenplay. Shooting begins in Los Angeles this spring. Variety doesn’t have the plot breakdown, but we do: “A young family makes the terrifying discovery that the body of their comatose boy has become a magnet for malevolent entities, while his consciousness lies trapped in the dark and insidious realm known as The Further.” Read on for more on the five-picture deal.
From Variety:

“Paranormal Activity” team Oren Peli, Jason Blum and Steven Schneider have inked a five-picture deal with leading Canadian distrib Alliance Films to finance and produce low-budget genre pics.

Pact kicks off with horror title “Insidious,” from “Saw” creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell. Wan beings lensing in Los Angeles this spring from a script by Whannell.

Alliance will release the films in Canada, the U.K. and Spain. CAA, which brokered the deal, will team with Alliance in repping domestic rights.

Stuart Ford’s IM Global will handle international sales and will shop “Insidious” to foreign buyers at the upcoming European Film Market in Berlin. Domestic rights are still available.

” ‘Paranormal’ taught us to do more with less, and this fund embodies that model. We are particularly thrilled to kick off the fund with James and Leigh,” Blum said.

Wan said he and Whannell were drawn to work with Peli, Blum and Schneider because “of their passion for genre films and having the creative control to make auteur-driven pictures.”

Wan directed the original “Saw,” as well as co-writing with Whannell.

Storyline for “Insidious” is being kept under wraps, other than Wan saying “Leigh wrote a fantastic script that took a haunted house movie with all the usual conventions and twisted it on its head.”

Last fall, Blum, Peli and Schneider made box office history with “Paranormal Activity.” Film was directed by Peli and produced by Blum for under $15,000. Schneider exec produced.

DreamWorks (then owned by Paramount) picked up rights to “Paranormal,” with a particular interest in remaking the film. Par ultimately decided to release the film as it was.

“Paranormal” grossed $107.9 million domestically and north of $70 million overseas for a worldwide total of nearly $178 million to date. Film’s strong international showing helped to further chip away the perception that horror doesn’t travel well beyond the U.S. “Paranormal” has yet to be released in Japan and Italy.

Blum and Alliance are confident that the same appetite will exist for “Insidious,” and the four other titles called for under their deal.

“I’ve known Jason for many years now,” Alliance prexy Charles Layton said. “While ‘Paranormal’ may have been an industry surprise, his success is not a surprise at all. We’re very pleased to be working with Oren, Steven and Jason now and for the long term.”

Deal is a reunion of sorts for Layton, Blum and Ford.

“I am very happy to be back in business with Stuart and Charles, old colleagues from my days at Miramax,” Blum said.

Horror movie fanatic who co-founded Bloody Disgusting in 2001. Producer on Southbound, V/H/S/2/3/94, SiREN, Under the Bed, and A Horrible Way to Die. Chicago-based. Horror, pizza and basketball connoisseur. Taco Bell daily. Franchise favs: Hellraiser, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Horror 365 days a year.

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‘Wolf Man’ Movie from Universal and Director Leigh Whannell Moves into 2025

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Wolf Man 2025

Filming kicked off just a couple weeks ago on The Invisible Man director Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man for Universal and Blumhouse, which had been ambitiously dated for release on October 25, 2024. As it turns out, however, a Halloween 2024 release was a bit too ambitious.

THR reports that Wolf Man will howl its way into theaters on January 17, 2025.

Christopher Abbott (Poor Things) has been cast in the titular role.

Wolf Man stars Christopher Abbott as a man whose family is being terrorized by a lethal predator.

Julia Garner (The Royal Hotel) will also star.

Writers include Whannell & Corbett Tuck as well as Lauren Schuker Blum & Rebecca Angelo.

Jason Blum is producing the film. Ryan Gosling, Ken Kao, Bea Sequeira, Mel Turner and Whannell are executive producers. Wolf Man is a Blumhouse and Motel Movies production.

The project will mark Whannell’s second monster movie and fourth directing collaboration with Blumhouse Productions (The Invisible Man, Upgrade, Insidious: Chapter 3).

In the wake of the failed Dark Universe, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man has been the only real success story for the Universal Monsters brand, which has been struggling with recent box office flops including the comedic Renfield and period horror movie The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Giving him the keys to the castle once more seems like a wise idea, to say the least.

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