There are so many films in development at Blumhouse that it's hard to keep track of them all. One will stand apart from the pack, however, as it's being specifically targeted at families. This is a significant departure for the production company behind the Paranormal Activity, Purge, Sinister and Insidious series. The only information THR have on the film so far is that Robert Ben Garant is writing and Harald Zwart is directing. They have much more kid-friendly experience than Jason Blum and co., thanks to the Night at the Museum films, Cody Banks and the Karate Kid remake. Garant's actually been busy at Blumhouse of late, also working on some proper adult-targeted horror fare. I'm not at all surprised; he's also the author of Writing Movies for Fun and Profit with his co-writer Thomas Lennon and they weren't joking about the profit part. This is a job to Garant, even while it's one he loves, and he seems very happy to go wherever the work is. I'd argue that we've already some successful horror films for kids, from The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T through Coraline, and perhaps most overtly, Joe Dante's The Hole; there's even a movie version of Goosebumps coming down the pike. One more won't hurt, however, and I'm certainly keen to see what Blum, Garant and Zwart are cooking up.
Brendon Connelly has been a film writer since the early 90s, with time on the staff of Orbit Magazine, Slashfilm, Bleeding Cool, Den of Geek and many more. He's a long time teacher of film studies and practical filmmaking classes, and has directed music videos, commercials, short films and more. His favourite film is Terry Gilliam's Brazil, his favourite food is pancakes or crepes, and he tries to live his life by the teachings of Kermit the Frog.
