The agency repping The Texas Chainsaw Massacre rights since 2017, Verve, is fielding a flurry of attention as they quietly shop around one of horror’s most enduring and blood-soaked IPs. As the theatrical market becomes increasingly reliant on established franchises, especially horror, it’s not surprising that studios and filmmakers are sharpening their chainsaws.
Verve confirmed to Deadline: “Verve represents The Texas Chainsaw Massacre estate and is building out a multimedia strategy for the seminal horror franchise.”
They also added: “Verve has not officially submitted the property into any filmmakers, producers or buyers. Because this is such a hot and iconic horror property, packages are pre-emptively being brought to Verve.”
One early pairing is Strange Darling filmmaker JT Mollner and producer Roy Lee. Their recent indie thriller was a great flick, and it pulled in $3 million and boasts a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Supposedly, if Mollner gets a script together, Top Gun: Maverick’s Glen Powell wants to read it. It’s early days, but a Mollner-Powell team-up could make for an interesting parternership with a franchise like this.
Word is that Lionsgate, A24, and others are also sniffing around along with Neon, who is hot off the success of Longlegs, The Monkey, and their upcoming film Keeper, this could be their next big horror swing for them.
Exurbia Films is the production company behind the scenes, with Pat Cassidy, Ian Henkel, and Kim Henkel producing. The estate is represented by attorney Marios Rush.
This is one of those franchises just won’t die. It was born from the twisted minds of Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel, the original 1974 film was a guerrilla production and shot in 100-degree heat with unknown actors for $140,000 and a script loosely inspired by real-life killers like Ed Gein and Elmer Wayne Henley.
That movie messed me up when I first watched it and none of the other films in the franchise captured the nightmarish insanity of that first movie.
It scraped together funding from local lawyers and friends, got picked up by the same company that released Deep Throat, and eventually made $31 million globally. A courtroom battle later revealed that after investors and legal fees, only $8,100 was left to split between 20 cast and crew members.
Regardless, it launched Hooper’s career and got Spielberg’s attention, who offered him Poltergeist. There’s a long story and debate there about who really directed that movie.
Over the years, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise grew to include nine films, two video games, comics, a novel, and box office receipts totaling over $252 million. The most recent was released in 2022.
So here we are again, the franchise is back on the table, and whoever ends up reviving Leatherface will be tapping into a brand with deep roots and blood-soaked history. But, I seriously doubt that whatever come of it will not reach the bar of horror that was set by the original.
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