BoulderLight, Zach Cregger Set ‘Companion’ At New Line, Will Produce Thriller From Drew Hancock 

Barbarian producer BoulderLight Pictures has set up a new thriller titled Companion at New Line, Deadline can confirm. The film will be the first produced under the banner’s first-look deal with the studio, announced just days ago.

News of the project comes following New Line’s triumph in a heated auction for Weapons — the second feature from writer-director Zach Cregger to produced by both BoulderLight and Vertigo Entertainment.

Details as to the plot of Companion are under wraps, though it’s being fast-tracked for production this year alongside Weapons. Deadline understands that Cregger initially eyed Companion as his directorial follow-up to Barbarian, though the team wound up setting the project as the directorial debut of Drew Hancock, who penned the script.

Producers are BoulderLight’s Raphael Margules and J.D. Lifshitz, Vertigo’s Roy Lee, and Cregger. BoulderLight’s Tracy Rosenblum and Vertigo’s Andrew Childs will exec produce.

Cregger and his partners had one of the hottest horror features of 2022 in Barbarian, starring Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long; it hit theaters via 20th Century in September after world premiering at Comic-Con. Pic grossed around $45 million against a production budget of $4.5M.

Details as to the story of Weapons, which was announced last week, are not being disclosed.

Getting his start by writing and directing shorts for the monthly L.A.-based film festival Channel 101, Hancock has also written on Spike TV’s Blue Mountain State, ABC’s Suburgatory and the 2018 Go90 original series My Dead Ex, which he created and exec produced.

THR and The Wrap were first to unveil the Companion deal.