Movies
Massive Casting Update For Karyn Kusama’s ‘Destroyer’
30WEST announced today that Beau Knapp (pictured above; Death Wish, Super 8, The Nice Guys, Southpaw), Jade Pettyjohn (“School of Rock”), Zach Villa (“Dan Is Dead,” Honeyglue), Toby Huss (“Halt and Catch Fire,” upcoming Labyrinth), and James Jordan (Wind River, The Endless) have joined the cast of Karyn Kusama’s Destroyer, Bloody Disgusting learned.
The film stars Academy Award and Emmy Award Winner Nicole Kidman, Emmy Award Winner Tatiana Maslany, Sebastian Stan, two-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Nominee Bradley Whitford, Toby Kebbell, and Scoot McNairy.
“Destroyer follows the moral and existential odyssey of LAPD detective Erin Bell who, as a young cop, was placed undercover with a gang in the California desert with tragic results. When the leader of that gang re-emerges many years later, she must work her way back through the remaining members and into her own history with them to finally reckon with the demons that destroyed her past.”
The modern Los Angeles crime thriller will be directed by Kusama from an original screenplay by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi.
Principal photography begins today in Los Angeles.
30WEST is fully financing the film. Academy Award Nominee Fred Berger of Automatik is producing alongside Hay and Manfredi, who also wrote and produced Kusama’s critically acclaimed film The Invitation. ROCKET SCIENCE is handling international sales, which began at the American Film Market, where Bliss Media acquired the distribution rights to Destroyer in China. ICM Partners and CAA are representing the North American rights.
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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