Blumhouse has turned to a familiar face with Sophia Takal (Blumhouse TV's Into the Dark) set to direct a remake of Black Christmas, based on Bob Clark's classic 1974 slasher movie. Per Blumhouse's plot description, "Hawthorne College is quieting down for the holidays. One by one, sorority girls on campus are being killed by an unknown stalker. But the killer is about to discover that this generation’s young women aren’t willing to become hapless victims as they mount a fight to the finish."
Imogen Poots (Green Room) is set to star alongside Aleyse Shannon (Charmed), Brittany O’Grady (Star), Lily Donoghue (The Goldbergs) and Caleb Eberhardt (Broadway’s Choir Boy). April Wolfe (Widower) co-wrote the script with Takal, who previously directed the "New Year, New You" entry for Hulu's Into the Dark anthology series, which is produced by Blumhouse Television.
Jason Blum (Halloween) will produce for Blumhouse along with Ben Cosgrove and Adam Hendricks (Cam) of Divide/Conquer. Greg Gilreath (Bloodline) and Zac Locke (Adopt-A-Highway) of Divide/Conquer will executive produce. Black Christmas will shoot in New Zealand, and Universal will release the film on Dec. 13, 2019, so it takes the place of the previously announced untitled Blumhouse film on the calendar.
Black Christmas is set several days before the titular holiday and follows a group of sorority sisters who are stalked and murdered in their house during a winter storm. Willard filmmaker Glen Morgan directed a loose remake of Black Christmas back in in 2006, popularly known as Black X-Mas, that starred Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Lacey Chabert. Apparently, Morgan and producer James Wong had numerous disputes with Dimension executives Bob and Harvey Weinstein regarding the tone of the script and the end of the film, and suffice to say, it wasn't very good. But hey, at least it was forgettable enough that we can all pretend it never happened, and celebrate this upcoming Blumhouse film as the one true remake. We can only hope that Terror Train will be next, since Prom Night, My Bloody Valentine and When a Stranger Calls already had their turn.
Takal made her feature directorial debut with Green, which premiered at SXSW, where she won the Emerging Female Director Award. Takal went on to direct the acclaimed indie film Always Shine starring Caitlin FitzGerald and Mackenzie Davis, the latter of whom won the Best Actress award at the Tribeca Film Festival. Takal's Into the Dark entry starred Suki Waterhouse and Carly Chaikin and made waves in genre circles.
Cosgrove is an independent producer who previously worked for George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh's Section Eight, Mark Cuban's 2929 Productions, and Paramount, where he oversaw award-winning films such as Dreamgirls, The Fighter and Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, among others.
CAA represents Poots, Takal and Donoghue, while Eberhardt is repped by UTA, O'Grady is repped by ICM, and Shannon is repped by Innovative Artists. Takal and Shannon are also repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners, while Poots is also repped by Troika and Management 360. O'Grady and Donoghue are also repped by Suskin Management and Brevard Talent Group, respectively.
