Movies
Stephen Chiodo Explains What Happened With SYFY’s Planned ‘Killer Klowns from Outer Space’ Movie
As you may recall, Bloody Disgusting had announced back in 2018 that SYFY entered talks to license the rights to make new feature films based on the Chiodo brothers’ Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) and Stephen Herek’s Critters (1986). The latter project ended up coming to life, with Critters Attack! releasing in 2019. But the former never ended up getting made.
What happened there? Stephen Chiodo breaks it down in a new chat with Slasher Radio.
“There was a deal… MGM controls the rights… and they went to SYFY,” Chiodo explains to the podcast. “They did Critters, and you saw what that turned out to be like. But they wanted to do Klowns for like two million [dollars]. And we don’t want to do that… we did it for two million back in the ’80s. So we didn’t want to do it. And even MGM didn’t want to do it… they said it was a more valuable property than just signing off for that little money.”
As for MGM, it sounds like a regime change recently killed interest in the continuation of the Klowns franchise. As Chiodo explains, they’re still trying to generate enough internal interest in the brand. At this time, however, a Klowns follow-up project remains as elusive as ever.
“Right out of the gate we tried to do a sequel,” Chiodo recalls. “In fact we had a TV deal… USA TV we had a series. But the deal fell through like a lot of things do. And we have been trying to get the sequel going since 1988. And Hollywood is just a horrible machine. The film didn’t really get much box office… and when you want to get a sequel done, they look at the box office. They don’t regard cult films as something to invest in.”
He continues, “We have this whole long trilogy – something we call a trilogy in four parts because we include the original – a TV series for cable [or] streaming. And it follows the adventures of all the characters as they go through their lives, crushed after the first invasion. It would make a great mini-series. So we’re constantly selling that for people who are interested.”
“Once they approached us to do a VR game, and I’ve got this whole thing planned out. I have this giant presentation. It was fucking fantastic,” Chiodo also mentions during the chat.
You can listen to Slasher Radio’s full conversation with Stephen Chiodo below.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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