Den of Geek: I was thinking about something I heard Kevin Feige from Marvel say once.
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Jason Blum:I do.
I actually feel like the Marvel brand is maybe a little broader.
Maybe not, actually.
Certainly, wed have trouble making a straight comedy fit.
JK Simmons is as scary as any character I have in any other horror movie.
What made the idea forHappy Death Day 2Uso enticing to you?
What made it compelling is the same thing that you touched on before.
Ive never done a franchise where you were experimenting with different genres within one single franchise.
We never would have done it if Chris and Jessica hadnt come back.
Its totally black and white.
On originals, I never think about what a sequel could be.
Besides making a great movie, you have to make the story work so you could make subsequent movies.
On sequels, its the opposite.
OnPurge 2orInsidious 4, we totally think about the sequel because we know one is coming.
I dont know if therell ever be a sequel toGet Out.
Some of them work for sequels and some of them just dont.
We tackle the sequel if the movies a big success.
Like we do withPurgeandInsidious.
Do you find that theres something in common that they all share?
And do you develop a shorthand thats unique to each filmmakers sensibilities?
The answers yes to both of those questions.
Theres definitely a shorthand.
I would definitely say that people that weve worked with multiple times are visionaries.
Its very, very hard.
I think we put more emphasis on the importance of actors than some of Hollywood does.
The way that we do that is, our casting department is in-house.
Terri Taylor runs the department, but shes got a few people under her.
She just won the Artios Award (for excellence in casting).
We dont work like that.
When a director comes to us they use our casting department and they use Terri.
Thats because we have a real specific idea about actors.
When Terri calls, everyones very familiar with those actors.
But none of these movies work without performance.
We dont have special effects and stunts and CGI to lean back on.
Im going to touch on a few upcoming projects.
Next up, very soon, isUs.
What can you say about what Jordans accomplished with this picture as his follow-up toGet Out?
Which is what people will see withUs.
Is theHalloweensequel in development yet?
Im trying, Im trying.
I would love to make one.
Nothing official yet, but Im trying.
Something that just got announced recently wasThe Invisible Man.
We saw that the Dark Universe idea didnt quite pan out.
Whats your take on how these classic Universal monsters should be handled or presented?
Do you have a vision for those?
The only one were currently doing isInvisible Man, and we should have a movie very soon.
Hopefully by the end of the year, then well go from there.
Were doing one at a time.
So youre not necessarily committed to aFrankensteinor aWolf Manor anything like that at this point?
No, not right now.
A project that I find interesting isYou Should Have Left.
I read that book and its a very creepy little book.
We look at source material everywhere for our movies, and definitely publishing is one place were working.
Were working onFirestarter, so we have some things in the pipeline already.
We look everywhere for scary stories to turn into movies and TV shows, for sure.
Im glad you mentionedFirestarter.
Where is that at right now?
Moving right along, moving right along.
Were actually in the middle of casting.
A flying under the radar Blumhouse project.
I would say keep an eye atFive Nights at Freddys.
Happy Death Day 2Uis out in theaters now.
