Sony’s Screen Gems has partnered with Assemble Media to bring an under-the-radar horror comic from several years back to the big screen. The comic in question is Paradise Court, originally published by Zenescope Entertainment in 2018. Now, it’s poised to become a movie, utilizing the resources of one of the biggest studios in Hollywood. Just don’t expect to see it anytime soon.
As reported by Deadline, Sony is in very early development on the feature based on the comic written by Joe Brusha with art by Babisu Kourtis. No word yet on who might direct or even pen the screenplay, meaning we’ve got no word on casting either. What we do know is that Assemble will produce the project. Jack Heller will serve as a producer, with Caitlin de Lisser-Ellen, Ralph Tedesco and Brusha on board as executive producers. Of note: Brusha also co-founded Zenescope alongside Tedesco. For those who may not be familiar with the comic (and it’s likely many of you aren’t), a synopsis for the miniseries reads as follows:
“While taking a cross country trip, a young couple stops to visit one of their long lost friends who live in an idyllic gated community in the Midwest. Not long after they arrive, they find out that a girl has gone missing and that something sinister may be lurking behind the mansions and well-manicured lawns of Paradise Court.”
Sony, mainly through Screen Gems, has been ramping up their horror game with movies like The Unholy, Don’t Breathe 2, and The Invitation serving as recent genre releases from the studio. They’ve also got The Pope’s Exorcist hitting theaters next month, which stars Oscar-winner Russell Crowe in the lead role. This latest development indicates that Sony is very much interested in staying in the horror movie business, as does everyone at the moment.
Horror is full-stop the most bankable thing at the box office right now, with movies like Smile, Barbarian, M3GAN, and Knock at the Cabin putting an awful lot of meat in seats in recent months. Even superhero movies are slowing down a bit, with both Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Shazam! Fury of the Gods serving as relative disappointments for Disney and Warner Bros., respectively. Horror, meanwhile, is reliable and often cheap to produce, making it very appealing for Hollywood at the moment. For fans of genre filmmaking, it could mean good things as long as audiences keep turning up.
Paradise Court does not yet have a release date.
