Vince Vaughn and Big Little Lies breakout star Kathryn Newton are reportedly on board star in an untitled Blumhouse movie from Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon. Sources describe the film as a body-swapping horror film in the vein of Freaky Friday.
The project was first reported on earlier this month, only as a Blumhouse project that would focus on “a killer who wreaks havoc in a small town”. Rumours swirled that, following the success of the new Halloween, Blumhouse had greenlit a Scream reboot and had hired Landon to direct.
That has turned out not to be true (still expect a Scream reboot at some point). Instead, it’s another horror film with a high concept, just as Happy Death Day was riffing on Groundhog Day. Expectations are that Vaughn will be the killer with Newton as a victim, and somehow they swap bodies.
Jason Blum is producing and the film will begin shooting in October. Newton is coming off two seasons of Big Little Lies, Detective Pikachu, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Lady Bird. She also leads the Netflix series The Society. She’s poised to become a star.
Vaughn recently starred in Heat-esque crime epic Dragged Across Concrete and wrestling movie Fighting With My Family. He’ll next be seen alongside Kristen Stewart in the drama Seberg.
It’s good that Landon is sticking with an original film. It would have been easy to take that Happy Death Day good will and move ahead with a Scream reboot or something similar, but it’s much more interesting and exciting to develop an original idea. If this new project has the originality and fun of Happy Death Day, it should be a hit.
#Peace.Love.HappyDeathDay
