A mere 24 hours after it was announced that Walter Hamada is in charge of a brand new horror venture over at Paramount, more huge news in the horror world has dropped tonight.
Variety reports that James Wan and Jason Blum are in “advanced talks” to merge Wan’s Atomic Monster and Blum’s Blumhouse Productions, the two horror titans looking to form what Variety is describing as a “mega house of chills and thrills” over at Universal Pictures.
Variety also notes, “Blumhouse, known for its low-budget approach to terror, is currently under a first look deal with Universal, which would extend to Atomic Monster as long as the deal closes. Wan’s first-look deal with Warner Bros. ended earlier this year after nearly a decade.”
The New York Times first reported the news, with Wan telling the outlet: “We really do complement each other, yin and yang, which is part of what makes this so exciting.”
How exactly will all of this work? Variety details, “After merging, the parties expect that Atomic Monster and Blumhouse will continue to operate as separate labels, with each maintaining its own creative autonomy and brand identity. Atomic Monster is expecting to utilize the existing Blumhouse infrastructure to further scale their activities in film, TV and new content areas. The idea behind the alliance is to increase the output from each side. They also hope to expand into horror-related games, live entertainment and audio.”
The New York Times report also indicates that Blumhouse and Atomic Monster are already considering a sequel to next year’s M3GAN, which looks primed for box office success.
Furthermore, Blum is “pushing for Blumhouse to make at least eight horror movies for release in theaters each year, up from the three or four it has historically delivered. And he wants to make another slate of horror flicks for Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service. Blumhouse also makes television series.”
Long story short? The horror business is absolutely BOOMING right now, and two of its major forces are about to help make the genre even hotter. Exciting times, to say the least!
‘M3GAN’