ScreamWire Daily

STUDIOCANAL’s Sixth Dimension has boarded Home Safety Hotline, locking a financing partnership with Spooky Pictures, Image Nation and Longevity Pictures behind the video game adaptation; Michael Matthews directs ahead of a South Africa shoot in early 2027.

A24 and Chernin Entertainment turned roughly $10 million into a monster run for Backrooms, which hit $212 million global and $135 million domestic in just 10 days to become A24’s biggest release ever. The horror breakout crossed $200 million worldwide and is already sparking franchise talk around Kane Parsons’ web-series adaptation.

Obsession has surged to $230 million worldwide on a $750,000 budget, but sequel and spinoff talks around Curry Barker’s breakout horror hit have not started yet.

Aug. 5 launch on FX/Hulu for Ryan Murphy’s Bret Easton Ellis adaptation; the 1980s L.A. serial-killer thriller tracks Bret, Robert Mallory and the Trawler as senior year unravels. 20th Television and Ryan Murphy Television produce, with Igby Rigney, Homer Gere, Kaia Gerber, Wes Bentley and Evan Rachel Wood in cast.

Amazon MGM Studios is developing The Boyfriend, a standalone follow-up to The Girlfriend centered on masculinity and pitched internally as a bold psychological thriller. The streamer is extending a break-out title that drew more than 25 million views and topped Prime Video’s UK chart, even as it continues to staff the UK originals pipeline under new commissioner Oliver Jones.

Stephen Lang boards Kevin Lewis' supernatural horror Mercy Good; the Salem-set film follows a family whose historic home is tied to a centuries-old force and is set to roll in Kentucky this September.

Queer horror romance Leviticus is heading into 1,000-plus theaters after a Sundance breakout; Adrian Chiarella is pitching the rollout as a watershed moment for horror and LGBTQ visibility. The theatrical push turns the film into a meaningful test for audience appetite beyond the festival circuit.

Independent Film Company and Shudder nab Alex Goyette’s horror pic Breeder after its Tribeca world premiere; the film is headed for a theatrical release this fall. Daniel Doheny, Dot Marie Jones, and Maddie Phillips star.

Nordic Genre Lab picks eight in-development features from 29 submissions; the slate includes the horror-thriller Trespassers and spans folk horror, survival horror, psychological horror and dystopian terror.

Sandy Johnson boards Carissa Pierson’s found-footage supernatural horror Witchcraft: The Lanterne of Light; the Halloween alum joins Eric Roberts, Lisa Wilcox, Kristina Lafser and Kato Kaelin as production continues in North Carolina.

Oklahoma wrap on Hansel & Gretel’s Halloween; Devilworks is steering international sales on the public-domain horror-fantasy twist, with Marcus Mallard and Logan Walcher directing from Chris Hoyt’s script.

Zurich Summit names FilmNation CEO Glen Basner its 2026 Game Changer, lining him up for the Sept. 25-27 conference as the indie sales outfit continues expanding across film, TV, podcasts and theater.

Tony Leung has three projects queued up: a Johnnie To film awaiting a finished script, an India-set feature delayed by monsoon season, and a six-to-seven episode serial killer series now in script fine-tuning. The lineup gives a clean read on where the star is headed next, with the streaming series the clearest genre play.

€2.5m Spain-France sci-fi drama wins the Screen International ECAM Forum Award; Víctor Iriarte’s project is now shopping for co-producers and distributors, with Creative Europe Media, ICEC and Eurimages backing the Spain-France-Portugal coproduction plan.

Found-footage psychological horror Baara Number has set its ensemble and is already on floors; Vir Das directs and Kavi Shastri boards as creative producer.

Sundance Institute names the 2026 Directors and Screenwriters Labs fellows, with eight projects in the Directors Lab and four writers in the Screenwriters Lab. Advisors include Colman Domingo, Ava DuVernay, Christopher McQuarrie, Catherine Hardwicke, and Ed Harris; standout projects include Roberto Fatal’s Electric Homies, a sci-fi consciousness-upload story, and Taylor Sanghyun Lee’s Rounds.

MVP Entertainment India is releasing Yeon Sang-ho’s Colony in Indian theaters on June 19 after its Cannes world premiere; the mutating-virus action-horror gives PVR INOX another event title.

Vertical Entertainment is putting Time of Death in theaters and on streaming tomorrow; the prison-set psychological horror stars Michael Kelly, Kevin Pollak, Mena Suvari and Dennis Haysbert, with Will Wernick directing.

Midsummer Scream is programming a Horror Musicals panel for Repo! The Genetic Opera, with Darren Lynn Bousman, Bill Moseley, Terrence Zdunich and Darren Smith on stage. The convention is pairing the Q&A with a shadowcast performance, keeping the property active inside the genre fan circuit.

Death Bloom pairs Eli Roth with Jessica Chandler on a doc about funeral-home excess and extreme embalming; the film digs into an end-of-life industry bracing for a 77 million baby-boomer death wave.

ComScore’s UKCA presentation argues release congestion left upside on the table for Sinners, F1, Superman and others; Ryan Coogler’s vampire Southern Gothic posted the strongest audience scores in the cohort, pointing to more room for hold strategy.

Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays Clark in A24’s Backrooms, says the film’s endless office-hallway maze reflects “what’s quietly ruining us”; he discussed its reception with Mike Flanagan, who’s directing him in a new Exorcist adaptation, on the morning of the film’s opening.

Netflix’s The Whisper Man, streaming Aug. 28, adapts Alex North’s novel and stars Robert De Niro, Michelle Monaghan and Adam Scott. It follows a father-son move to a sleepy town where a jailed serial killer’s old abduction case resurfaces when children disappear.

Netflix and BBC lock A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder for a four-episode final season in 2027; production is already wrapped, with Holly Jackson staying on as writer and EP.

Curry Barker’s “Obsession” has grossed $224 million worldwide and Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms” $212 million, while Markiplier’s independently distributed “Iron Lung” topped $50 million; the article flags Baron Ryan, Kallmekris, Chris Stuckmann and others as creator talents Hollywood may court next.

Magnolia’s TIFF acquisition Carolina Caroline, a Samara Weaving crime movie, debuted at No. 1 on the indie specialized box office chart with $110,110 from 246 screens in its opening weekend.

Fully funded Australia-Japan feature is mid-shoot; one block has wrapped, Japan is underway now, and Australia is set for October. Titantale Film’s supernatural-sci-fi romance spans Edo Japan, 1865 New South Wales and 2027 Australia, with Yamada Takayuki leading the cast.

MPA has locked Evil Dead Burn at R for bloody violence and gore, keeping the franchise sequel on track for its theatrical rollout.

2026 Ignyte Awards shortlist is out, keeping horror, sci-fi, and fantasy in the awards lane ahead of the final ceremony; the genre-specific honor roll remains a key visibility platform for diverse and emerging voices.