Exclusive: Focus Features and Blumhouse’s Atomic Monster Is Making a Buzz play houseA micro-budget horror film from Nicolas Curcio is in a competitive position, sources tell Deadline.
We were told it was a seven-figure deal for worldwide rights excluding Latin America and India. This is a major coup for a project that Curcio made as his first feature film for just $100,000 – that’s about 13% of the reported budget of Kari Barker’s low-budget Focus phenomenon. Passion.
Curcio kicked off the project last September after winning the inaugural Fantastic Pitch competition, a micro-budget genre initiative run by Alamo Drafthouse’s Fantastic Fest and indie studio Chroma, securing funding and distribution. He returned to Fantastic Fest last month to premiere the film.
play house It will be released theatrically in 2027, with Universal Pictures International handling international distribution.
Written by Curcio and wife/creative partner Kirby Gladstein, the film follows Elliot (Will Harrison), who, while renovating a dilapidated house in order to get his ex back, discovers a VHS tape of an unaired children’s TV show that begins to intrude on his life, threatening his last chance at reconciliation.
The pic’s cast also includes Jessica Sula, Jordan Gonzalez and James Urbaniak. Curcio and Gladstein produced for Skinny Ghost along with Ben Gozer, Jack Forbes and Derek Tramont. Executive producers include Ahbara Perry via Chroma, Daniel Levin via Narrative, Divide/Conquer’s Adam Hendricks and Greg Gilreath, and Blumhouse Atomic-Monster’s Jason Blum. Perry of Narrative Distribution reprized the film for sale.
While Universal art-house label Focus Features has not historically been known as a major horror distributor, apart from recent work with Robert Eggers on titles such as Nosferatu and upcoming werewolfHaving seen that, they are now aggressively expanding into the region as supporters of emerging filmmakers Passion It became the highest-grossing film of all time, grossing over $522M worldwide. Divide/Conquer’s Hendricks and Gilreath passed the title on to Jason Blum, who set the film in focus with his follow-up. anything but ghostsDated May 7, 2027.
You can expect a lot more to come from the collaboration between Focus Features and Blumhouse—Atomic Monsters. Recently, he announced his partnership with director Josh Giuliano Resident After the tumultuous TIFF debut of its first horror film, River.
Curcio is an emerging filmmaker who has recently established his high-concept thriller fantasy sweet spotWritten with Gladstein at Paramount Primal, as we first reported. A writer on Sony Pictures Animation’s hits goatHe has developed projects for several studios, including live-action magic school bus Universal and for an adaptation of planet of nerds For Paramount, after seeing his script Baron Included in 2019 blacklist.
Curcio is also known for running a popular screenwriting TikTok account with almost 200K followers and over 10M likes, and he has partnered with studios like Neon, A24, and Paramount to promote films. He is represented by 3 Arts, UTA and Jacoway Austin Tyerman.