Scott Derrickson will direct Black Phone for Blumhouse & Universal

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Although Scott Derrickson may not be taking the helm of DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS any longer, he will be returning to the realm of horror for his next project. Deadline has reported that Derrickson will be directing an adaptation of "The Black Phone," a novella by Joe Hill included in his "20th Century Ghosts" story collection.

"The Black Phone" follows John Finney, a young boy who finds himself locked in a basement that's stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. In the cellar with him is an antique telephone, long since disconnected, but which rings at night with calls from the dead. Creepy. The project is being set up at Blumhouse Productions and Universal Pictures, and Scott Derrickson will be also be co-writing the script alongside Robert Cargill (SINISTER). Mason Thames (For All Mankind) will star in BLACK PHONE, along with Madeleine McGraw (TOY STORY 4). Derrickson and Cargill's SINISTER was recently dubbed to be the scariest movie of all-time according to science, and while I wouldn't exactly go that far, it was quite the unsettling tale, so I've got high hopes for BLACK PHONE.

Scott Derrickson has several other projects in the works as well (although he said BLACK PHONE will be his next project on Twitter), including a sequel to Jim Henson's LABYRINTH and a Bermuda Triangle film that Chris Evans is apparently considering starring in.