Decker

New Video game adaptation, based on one of my favorite PlayStation games of recent years.

‘Until Dawn’ Video Game Movie in the Works From David F. Sandberg, Gary Dauberman (Exclusive)

It's a horror reteaming of the director and writer who scared audiences with 'Annabelle: Creation.'



Filmmaker David F. Sandberg, who has spent the past several years in the land of superheroes, is returning to his horror roots.

The Shazam! helmer has signed a deal to direct Until Dawn, an adaptation of the PlayStation horror video game being made by Screen Gems and PlayStation Productions. All three units fall under the Sony corporate umbrella.

Gary Dauberman, the screenwriter behind hit horror franchises It, Annabelle and The Nun, is doing a pass on the a script originally written by Blair Butler, who previously wrote Sony’s vampire thriller, The Invitation.



Dauberman, who late last year signed a first-look deal with Screen Gems and Sony to deliver horror movies, is producing Until Dawn under his Coin Operated banner. Also producing are Sandberg and Lotta Losten via their Mangata shingle, as well as Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment, and PlayStation Productions’ Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan.

First released in 2015, Until Dawn is an interactive horror video game that follows eight friends and frenemies who are brought together at a remote mountain retreat. With live-or-die scenarios featuring a mysterious killer, cannibalistic wendigos, a cable car and a long-ago mining cave-in that reverberates into the present day, the members of the group must fight through their fear if they all hope to make it through the night in one piece. The game proved to be a surprise hit with critics and received numerous gaming awards nominations.

The logline for the feature adaptation is kept deep inside the caves, but Screen Gems is describing it as an R-rated love letter to the horror genre, centering on an ensemble cast.

Overseeing for Screen Gems are newly appointed head Ashley Brucks, as well as Michael Bitar. Screen Gems’ Dan Primozic closed the rights and shepherded the dealmaking for this package.

PlayStation Productions has ramped up its slate in recent years, and last year saw The Last of Us, Gran Turismo and Twisted Metal move from the console world to the big and small screen.



Dauberman has an adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, which he wrote and directed for Warner Bros., in the can. He is also developing a live-action take on 1980s animated series Gargoyles for Disney+.

Sandberg made horror shorts in his native Sweden before one of the films, Closet Space, caught Hollywood’s attention. He made his feature debut with New Line’s Lights Out, a low-budget hit, and then was tasked with taking on Annabelle: Creation, an entry in the Conjuring horror universe written by Dauberman that scared critics and audiences alike to the tune of $305 million worldwide on a $15 million budget. He brought some of the scary movie sensibilities to his first DC movie, 2019’s Shazam!, the well-regarded coming-of-age superhero movie starring Zachary Levi. He most recently directed Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which ended up being part of 2023’s superhero contraction.

RocShemp

Should be a cheap movie to make. All you gotta do is record a random playthrough and release as is. Heck, you could even revive the Clue theatrical model, given all the possible conclusions of the game.

Troy Stiffler

I like the director. I wonder if we will start seeing more video game IP since they’re getting a pretty good handle on adapting it.

Spiderbite

After all the talk in the video game section and now this, I am going to have to check this out on my PS4.

RocShemp

I loved The Quarry (its spiritual successor) so much, I ended up ordering a disc copy of Until Dawn. I look forward to playing it soon.

Spiderbite

Yeah. Looks like those are my two next games to play from all the rave reviews here for both.

RichC2

Figure someone should throw this in here:



Can't believe the game is almost a decade old.

Dan

Decker

If there's a word that's the opposite of star-studded, that's the word I would use to describe this cast.
When your game has recognizable stars in it, but the movie adaptation doesn't, that sounds like a problem.

Michael Corvin

Yeah, how does this not have Hayden and Malek in it?

asianxcore

Outside Odessa A'zion, their combined Filmography is fairly thin.

Michael Cimino was in Annabelle Comes Home (2019). Not sure if I would call him a rising star.

Decker

Finally a name I recognize casted. And coming back to the same role!

X - Formerly Twitter

Filming begins this month