Movies
‘Orphan’ Prequel ‘Orphans’ Starring Isabelle Fuhrman Acquired by Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures has acquired the U.S. rights to the Orphan franchise prequel Orphans from Dark Castle Entertainment, Deadline has learned.
The film, which will soon wrap production in Budapest, serves as a prequel to 2022’s Orphan: First Kill, which itself was a prequel to 2009’s Orphan.
Isabelle Fuhrman — now 28 years old — will play an even younger version of Esther. Like First Kill, the effect is expected to be accomplished through a combination of makeup, forced perspective, and body doubles.
William Brent Bell (Orphan: First Kill, The Boy) directs from a script by David Coggeshall (Orphan: First Kill, The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia).
Stephen Moyer (“True Blood”), Susanne Wuest (Goodnight Mommy), and Simon Man (“Westworld”) also star.
Dark Castle’s Norman Golightly produces with Alex Mace of Gnosis Films and original Orphan writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. Fuhrman serves as executive producer alongside Kelly Gallagher and Victor Moyers.
“Surrounding Isabelle with Stephen, Simon, and Susanne will deliciously add to the twists, turns, and kills that Orphan fans have come to love and expect from the franchise,” said Golightly.
“We’re thrilled to bring the next chapter of the Orphan franchise to audiences across the US,” added Sejin Croninger, EVP, Worldwide Acquisitions, Paramount Pictures. “Dark Castle has built an iconic series, and this new installment expands that world in bold and unexpected ways.”
Orphan made close to $78 million at the global box office. In the film, a husband and wife who recently lost their baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be.
Orphan: First Kill grossed $37 million worldwide. In it, Esther escapes from an Estonian psychiatric facility and travels to America by impersonating the missing daughter of a wealthy family, pitting her against a mother who will protect her family at any cost.
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
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