Over the last decade, Ethan Hawke has tended to flit between his status as one of his generation’s most acclaimed character actors, while leading a double life as a stalwart of B-level genre films. He’s also one of the most prolific talents in the business having shot 31 movies in the last ten years, as well as appearing in five TV shows and five plays.
Hawke’s relentless desire to star in as many projects as possible has seen him win rave reviews in prestige dramas Before Midnight, Boyhood and First Reformed, while simultaneously showing up in a string of terrible action thrillers like Getaway, 24 Hours to Live and Regression. Through it all, he’s also lent support in mediocre big budget blockbusters Total Recall, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets and The Magnificent Seven remake, and that’s without even mentioning his status as one of Jason Blum’s most frequent collaborators.
Having co-wrote and starred in Blumhouse’s recent Showtime miniseries The Good Lord Bird, the 51 year-old has signed on to reteam with both the production company and his Sinister director Scott Derrickson for The Black Phone. This marks his ninth film and television appearance under the Blumhouse banner, so he’s clearly a fan of what the producer and his company are putting out there.
Based on the short story by Stephen King’s son Joe Hill, the basic premise follows a child locked in a basement with an antique telephone, which rings at night with calls from the dead. That certainly sounds as though it’s right up both Blumhouse and Derrickson’s street, with the Doctor Strange filmmaker writing the script alongside frequent creative partner C. Robert Cargill, and cameras start rolling on The Black Phone next month.