Paul Feig has tickled the funny bone several times as the director of “Bridesmaids,” “The Heat,” and “Freaks and Geeks,” but funnily enough, his latest film will instead have him for the first time tackling the horror genre.
Feig is set to direct an untitled thriller for Blumhouse about a really bad roommate, and the film will draw from the same source material that inspired the Netflix true crime docuseries “Worst Roommate Ever.” This is actually the first time Blumhouse is producing both an unscripted series and a scripted thriller based on the same source material.
The film will be an original story written by Stephen Susco (“Unfriended: Dark Web”), but it is inspired by William Brennan’s New Yorker article that served as the basis for “Worst Roommate Ever,” which was also produced by Blumhouse. The film will follows a newly single woman who sublets a room in her dream home to a seemingly perfect guy, only to discover that he is a serial squatter with a phony name and background who won’t leave without a fight.
Feig is also producing the film alongside Laura Fischer. Jason Blum, Chris Morgan, and Vox Media’s Scoop Wasserstein will also produce. Executive producing are Chris Morgan Productions’ Ainsley Morgan, Brennan, and Blumhouse’s Bea Sequeira, and VP of creative development and production Shaun S. Sutton. Haley Pigman is overseeing the project for Blumhouse.
“‘Worst Roommate Ever’ resonates so much because as the internet has connected so many of us, it also makes it easier than ever to lie about who you are. But then the story is jaw-dropping and keeps you on the edge of your seat,” Blum said in a statement. “Paul is the perfect director for this because his work always manages to strike a balance between the dark and the light, and I’m very excited to see everything he will bring to this story.”
“Jason and I have been trying to find the perfect project to collaborate on for years and this story is tailor-made to deliver the scares, thrills, emotion and comedy of dread that both he and I like to entertain audiences with,” Feig said in a statement. “In other words, I couldn’t be happier to have Jason as the best roommate ever for this film.”
Feig is known for his comedies, but he has veered into other genres, most recently the fantasy “The School for Good and Evil” for Netflix and the mystery “A Simple Favor.” Feig recently wrapped filming on a sequel to “A Simple Favor,” and his next film “Jackpot!” is an action comedy starring John Cena and Awkafina. That film opens on Amazon Prime Video next month.
Blumhouse’s “Worst Roommate Ever” will debut its third season on Netflix in September, and the first two seasons of the show each hit #1 on Netflix’s Top 10 in the U.S. in their debuts.
