Ten years have passed since C. Robert Cargill, Scott Derrickson, and Ethan Hawke’s creative team for Sinister produced one of Blumhouse’s first low-budget hits, but they have once again answered the call with The Black Phone.
The writer-producer Cargill is especially pleased for the $23 million opening weekend of Blumhouse and Universal’s most recent supernatural horror movie because a 2022 release wasn’t initially planned. When Derrickson was still a film reviewer, Cargill first met him. During a pivotal meeting in Las Vegas, Cargill pitched the director Sinister, beginning their now-prolific creative collaboration. After Sinister made almost 30 times its $3 million production budget, Marvel Studios sought the pair out to direct Doctor Strange in 2016.
Despite receiving positive reviews and an over $700 million box office take for his 2016 picture Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Derrickson left production on the sequel in early 2020. Black Phone was initially intended to be saved until Multiverse was finished.
However, as Cargill explains in a recent spoiler interview with THR, those plans were abruptly altered when Derrickson opted to focus on The Black Phone instead of Doctor Strange 2, which he and Cargill had previously written from Joe Hill’s 2004 short tale. The novelist and screenwriter also talk about Hawke’s “The Grabber” backstory and the initial idea to totally film around the character’s face. Then, while he films a last-minute rewrite, he reflects on his most emotional day on set.
Several elements in this film were distinctly from that historical period and what was hip. They are firmly rooted in the 1970s, particularly in comments made when Scott was a little child. Gwen says another line in which she expresses her desire to wed Danny Bonaduce. She used the term “He’s so vital,” which is undoubtedly an outdated expression. In response to Robin’s question about how he’s doing, Finn replies, “You know, just keeping on keeping on,” which is similar to what Scott and his pals would have said at that age. So, we made a big effort to replicate the dialect of the time.
