Stephen King Told The Boogeyman Director Disney Would Be "F--king Stupid" to Not Release in Theaters
As has been the case for many movies the past few years, 20th Century Studios' The Boogeyman was originally scheduled to be a streaming release with plans to premiere it on Hulu exclusively. Much like last year's hit movie Smile, some early test screenings for the movie saw the studio get very excited about its prospects, switching it over to getting a theatrical release. Speaking in a new interview with Total Film magazine, director Rob Savage revealed that one of the people that might have cemented this happening was Stephen King himself. After showing the master of horror a cut of the movie, King had one thought about its release.
"When the movie tested so well, we decided it was time to get his input, so we rented out his favorite cinema in Maine," Savage revealed. "He knows what he doesn't like and if we'd have fucked up his story, he'd have told us. But he sent a lovely almost-essay about how much he enjoyed the movie. And then the next day I wake up and there's an email in my inbox from Steve King and he said he's still thinking about the movie. He said a few more nice things and the nicest thing that he said was, 'They'd be f--king stupid to release this on streaming and not in cinemas.'"
Savage further teased how the decision to put the movie in theaters came about, revealing that test screenings of an incomplete version of the movie was even scaring people. He adds, "I think we knew from the first cut that we had something special, but I remember sitting there at the first test screening and we had animatics and stop-motion animation for the creature, and I was terrified, I didn't want to screen it – I thought people would tear it to pieces. But you just felt that it was connecting with the audience from the first five minutes."
The Boogeyman stars Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets), Chris Messina (Air), Vivien Lyra Blair (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Marin Ireland (The Umbrella Academy), Madison Hu (Bizaardvark), LisaGay Hamilton (Vice), and David Dastmalchian (Boston Strangler). Savage, fresh off his Shudder hit Host, directs the film from screenplay by Scott Beck & Bryan Woods (A Quiet Place) and Mark Heyman (Black Swan) and a screen story by Scott Beck & Bryan Woods based upon the short story by Stephen King.
The Boogeyman lands in theaters on June 2nd.