It seems Jason Blum is making some headway with working out how to produce Happy Death Day 3. Following the success of 2017’s Happy Death Day, 2019’s Happy Death Day 2U failed to make the same kind of commercial impact. But the Blumhouse founder has continued to stress that he’s dedicated to finding a way to produce it that would be financially viable. And, going by his latest comments, he may have finally figured it out.
While speaking to GameSpot to promote Christopher Landon’s new horror effort, Freaky, the conversation obviously touched on the future of Landon’s HDD franchise and Blum reiterated that his mission is to complete the trilogy.
“It’s a trilogy. I’ve got to make the third one,” Blum shared. “Maybe after Freaky we’ll figure it out… [Director Christopher Landon and I] really want to do it. So hopefully we’ll figure it out.”
The producer went on to say that it could be smart to release HDD3 in the same way as Freaky will be distributed – with a short run in theaters but making most of its money on premium VOD. Blum believes this could be the “perfect movie” for this strategy.
“That’s a perfect [premium video-on-demand] movie,” the producer detailed. “Universal has this agreement: 17 days in the theater. The same as Freaky, 17 days in a theater and then [it] goes to PVOD. We should make Happy Death Day 3 for that system. I mean, if that movie isn’t right for it, I don’t know what is. So that’s what it would be.”
He then concluded by saying that he thinks many of Blumhouse’s upcoming productions will be made with streaming in mind over a theatrical release. This October, for instance, four original Blumhouse horrors are coming out on Amazon Prime Video.
“I think most of my movies going forward will work very well in that system, will work very well with a shortened theatrical window, then going straight to premium VOD,” Blum pointed out. “I think that that system will be very good for Blumhouse.”
Landon recently hinted at some details about the threequel, revealing that the working title is Happy Death To Us and it wouldn’t be set on the same day as the first two time-looped films. He explained that this makes the delay in getting the movie off the ground acceptable – as the cast can be a little older than they were last time. Whatever happens, star Jessica Rothe is in it for the long haul, as she said she’d be happy to play Tree Gelbman again in 20 years’ time.
Meanwhile, while we wait for concrete news on Happy Death Day 3, Freaky – a body-swap horror-comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton – hits theaters this November 13th.
