EXCLUSIVE: Brett and Drew Pierce (The Wretched) have been tapped to write and direct the supernatural horror Room 428 for Screen Gems.
Details as to the film’s plot are being kept under wraps. But filmmaker Scott Derrickson (Sinister, Doctor Strange), screenwriter C. Robert Cargill and Sherryl Clark are on board to produce for Crooked Highway. News of the trio’s latest project follows the release of their hit horror feature The Black Phone, which Derrickson directed from his and Cargill’s script, which was itself based on the short story of the same name penned by Joe Hill. The project also marks a return to Screen Gems for Derrickson, who previously directed the films The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Deliver Us from Evil for the studio. Scott Strauss and Giselle Johnson will oversee Room 428 for Screen Gems.
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The Pierce Brothers most recently directed the horror film The Wretched, which came in as a sleeper hit for IFC Midnight. Following the film’s release in theaters in 2020, it secured the number one spot at the box office in the U.S. for six consecutive weekends, becoming the first to hold that record since the release of Avatar in 2009. The Wretched became available to stream on Netflix on July 31st, and subsequently charted as one of the Top 10 Most Watched Films in the U.S. The Pierce Brothers made their feature directorial debut with the zombie cult film Deadheads, which launched on the festival circuit in 2011.
Released in the U.S. in June, Crooked Highway’s The Black Phone watches as a 13-year-old boy (Mason Thames) is abducted by a child killer (Ethan Hawke) and locked in a soundproof basement, then beginning to receive calls on a disconnected phone from the killer’s previous victims. The Universal Pictures title has thus far grossed over $142M worldwide.
Brett and Drew Pierce are represented by A3 Artists Agency, Gotham Group, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman; Crooked Highway by WME, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Johnson, Shapiro, Slewitt & Kole.
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