Curry Barker is gassing up his chainsaw. Though the 25-year-old filmmaker’s much-talked-about film Obsession is not yet in theaters, A24 is handing him the feature keys to storied horror property The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Barker is in talks to write and direct his own take on Texas Chainsaw, which will stand separate from an A24 TV series from Glen Powell, Dan Cohen and JT Mollner.
Barker has been on a rise rarely seen these days in Hollywood. After coming up in the world of YouTube sketch comedy, he shot an $800 horror movie and put it on YouTube for free, where it amassed more than 2 million views and caught Hollywood’s attention.
He then became the toast of the Toronto Film Festival last fall, when his under $1 million budgeted movie Obsession became the biggest sale of the fest, going to Focus Features for around $15 million, a sum which makes it one of the biggest indie sales ever in terms of budget to purchase price ratio. The feature, which Barker wrote, directed and edited, is a Monkey’s Paw style tale of a young man who wishes that his friend would love him more than anything in the world, with the results ending in spooky disaster. A24 was among the finalists for Obsession, and the Texas Chainsaw move now puts them in business with the hot filmmaker. The hiring of Barker signals an intention to breathe new life into the 50-year-old franchise and perhaps speak to a younger audience.
While Barker has so far gravitated toward original concepts, he has spoken publicly about his love of Texas Chainsaw. Details of his take on the property are not known, but he follows in the footsteps of horror auteur Zach Cregger, who is putting his own spin on Resident Evil over at Sony.
Obsession opens May 15, and Barker is preparing to embark on a press tour. It’s been a whirlwind, as he just completed principal photography on his sophomore feature, Anything But Ghosts, which he wrote, directed and co-stars in for producers Jason Blum and Roy Lee.
Lee will produce the new Texas Chainsaw along with his Spooky Pictures partner Steven Schneider. Stuart Manashil and Exurbia Films’ Pat Cassidy, Ian Henkel and Kim Henkel will also produce as will Powell and Cohen via Barnstorm. Ben Ross of Image Nation will executive produce.
Texas Chainsaw is one of the more storied horror franchises in existence, which also happened to have scrappy independent roots. Made for only $150,000 in 1974, the original movie pushed the bounds of the genre and became one of the most profitable movies ever made.
Numerous films have been made over the decades, some successful, some not, almost always outside the Hollywood system. When A24 landed the rights to the intellectual property, it marked a new chapter as it was now in the hands of a company known for elevated, thoughtful fare that also knows how to appeal to the Gen Z demographic.
Barker is repped by Underground, UTA and Yorn Levine.
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