‘Black Christmas’: Sophia Takal Set To Direct Blumhouse Remake Of 1974 Slasher

Blumhouse Productions has set Sophia Takal to direct a remake of the 1974 slasher film Black Christmas with a script written by Takal & April Wolfe. Blumhouse is producing for Universal and shooting soon in New Zealand.

Imogen Poots (Green Room), Aleyse Shannon (Charmed), Brittany O’Grady (Star), Lily Donoghue (The Goldbergs) and Caleb Eberhardt (Broadway’s Choir Boy) are set to star.

The project re-teams Takal with Blumhouse after their collaboration on New Year, New You, a film in Hulu’s Into the Dark anthology series that starred Suki Waterhouse and Carly Chaikin.

Takal directed Always Shine, which starred Mackenzie Davis and Caitlin FitzGerald and played at the Venice Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival. Takal also wrote, directed, and starred in Green, which premiered at SXSW and earned her the festival’s Emerging Female Director Award. Takal’s other acting credits include God’s Pocket, All the Light in the Sky, Wild Canaries and V/H/S.

Producing are Jason Blum (Halloween) for Blumhouse Productions, Ben Cosgrove (previously president of 2929 Productions and SVP of Production at Paramount Pictures), and Adam Hendricks (Cam) of Divide/Conquer. Greg Gilreath (Cam) and Zac Locke (Adopt-A-Highway), of Divide/Conquer, will executive produce.

Black Christmas is apparently the gift that keeps giving. The 1974 film about a spree killing in a sorority house starred Olivia Hussey (Romeo and Juliet), Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey), Margot Kidder (Superman), and John Saxon (A Nightmare on Elm Street). The low-budget Canadian slasher was produced and directed by Bob Clark (The Christmas Story) and its cult following compelled Clark to produce a 2006 namesake remake with writer-director Glen Morgan (best known for his X-Files work) that earned $21 in worldwide box office against a $9 million budget.

Clark’s 1974 original is also recognized as a pioneer effort in slasher cinema and credited as a major influence on John Carpenter’s Halloween, the 1978 classic that has now yielded 10 sequels or tie-in films. Most recent among that series is David Gordon Green’s Halloween, a direct sequel to the original that was produced by Blumhouse and released last year with great commercial success.

Takal is represented by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment, and Gang, Tyre, Ramer Brown & Passman. Poots is repped by CAA, Troika, Management 360, and Morris Yorn Barnes Levine Krintzman Rubenstein Kohner Gellman. Aleyse Shannon is repped by Innovative Artists & Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Brittany O’Grady is repped by ICM and Suskin Management. Lily Donoghue is repped by CAA and Brevard Talent Group.
Caleb Eberhardt is repped by UTA and Gabriel Gomez.