Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson reveals the first poster for Universal Pictures and Blumhouse horror movie The Black Phone. Directed by Derrickson from his adapted screenplay co-written by Doctor Strange scribe C. Robert Cargill, The Black Phone reunites Derrickson with his Sinister star Ethan Hawke in an adaptation of the 2004 short story by author Joe Hill (NOS4A2, Locke & Key). “Never talk to strangers,” warns the poster for the horror-thriller from producer Jason Blum (The Forever Purge, Halloween Kills) that features Hawke (The Purge, Marvel’s Moon Knight) as a costumed creep who kidnaps young victim Finney Shaw (For All Mankind’s Mason Thames).
The Black Phone “is definitely one of the creepiest movies we’ve ever done. Scott thinks it is his best movie,” Blum previously told Collider of the new movie reuniting him with his Sinister director. “I’m such a fan of Scott’s…I really like all of his movies. I loved Sinister, but I will certainly say is one of his best movies. Maybe the best movie he has ever made.”
When Finney finds himself locked in a soundproof basement with the remains of the killer’s past victims, he answers calls from the dead when an antique — and disconnected — telephone rings.
The Black Phone marks Derrickson’s return to horror after helming 2014’s Deliver Us From Evil and co-writing 2015’s Sinister 2 with Cargill. Citing “creative differences,” Derrickson and Cargill exited Marvel sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and re-teamed to answer the call for The Black Phone.
The official description for Hill’s short story that inspires The Black Phone is below.
“It was creative differences. wanted to do one movie, and Marvel wanted to do another movie. So he sat there and said, ‘Well sh-t, I’ve got this great script that I wrote with Cargill, and I’m really proud of,’” Cargill told CinemaBlend. “We were actually going to go out to other directors for The Black Phone, and Scott was like, he called me up and said, ‘Dude, I have to make this movie. It’s gotta be my movie, I have to do this. Do you mind waiting until after I’m done with “He really wanted to bring me onto Strange as well. But in the event that it didn’t happen, he was like, ‘Do you mind waiting?’” continued Cargill. “And I was like, ‘You know what, if you feel this passionately about it, no. I’ll wait a couple years to make this movie.’”
Jack Finney is thirteen, alone, and in desperate trouble. For two years now, someone has been stalking the boys of Galesberg, stealing them away, never to be seen again. And now, Finney finds himself in danger of joining them: locked in a psychopath’s basement, a place stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children.
With him in his subterranean cell is an antique phone, long since disconnected . . . but it rings at night anyway, with calls from the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.
Co-starring James Ransone (IT: Chapter Two) and Jeremy Davies (Lost), Universal and Blumhouse open The Black Phone in theaters on January 28, 2022. Chloe Zhao’s Eternals may be rated PG-13 here in the United States, but it’s shaping up to be a different story internationally. Saturday morning, news quickly spread (via The Direct) that Russia’s film classification organization gave the movie an 18+ rating, the first for a Marvel Studios film in the country. In comparison, movies like Avengers: Endgame or Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings were treated as 16+ releases while The Avengers and Spider-Man: Far From Home earned 12+ ratings.
The “prohibited for children” rating is one Russian cinema authorities have often reserved for western films with LGBTQ+ themes, such as the latest Power Rangers reboot after the country passed what amounts to be a “gay propaganda law” in 2013. It’s a law that has since been condemned by the Council of Europe, the United Nations, and various human rights groups such as Amnesty International. In the United States, Eternals is rated PG-13 for “fantasy violence and action, some language, and brief sexuality.”
In the film, Brian Tyree Henry’s Phastos is set to become the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first openly gay superhero. “I just shot a Marvel film with the first openly gay superhero, The Eternals. I’m married to the gay superhero Phastos, played by Atlanta’s Brian Tyree Henry, and we represent a gay family and have a child,” Eternals actor Haaz Sleiman previously told LOGO’s NewNowNext.
“Oh, yeah, absolutely, and it’s a beautiful, very moving kiss. Everyone cried on set,” Sleiman added. “For me it’s very important to show how loving and beautiful a queer family can be. Brian Tyree Henry is such a tremendous actor and brought so much beauty into this part, and at one point I saw a child in his eyes, and I think it’s important for the world to be reminded that we in the queer community were all children at one point. We forget that because we’re always depicted as sexual or rebellious. We forget to connect on that human part.” Eternals is currently set for release on November 5th.
News Summary:
- Blumhouse Horror Director’s Doctor Strange The first poster is collected by the Black Phone
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