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Get Out producer Jason Blum reveals next project: Dee Rees directed horror about black lesbians in rural America

The pair signed a deal after meeting at the Sundance Institute

Jack Shepherd
Monday 15 May 2017 04:55 EDT
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Jason Blum has made a name for himself as one of Hollywood’s most prolific horror producers, having recently worked on Get Out, Split, and The Purge.

Speaking to The New York Times, the 48-year-old — who heads Blumhouse Productions — revealed one of his many upcoming projects; a horror, directed by Mudbound’s Dee Rees, about two black lesbians haunted by some unfamiliar force.

The duo apparently met at the Sundance Institute while giving speeches, Rees approaching Blum and offering a movie pitch: “You’ve got me and my wife, two black lesbians, and when we first moved in, we fought every day over all these little things: ‘Why is this over there? Did you move that?’ ”

“Maybe it was a ghost. Or maybe it was some other force — like us not wanting to be there or fitting in. Anyway, that’s my horror-movie pitch.”

Blum immediately replied the two should work together, with The Tracking Board confirming they had indeed signed a deal soon after the initial meeting.

“I can’t tell you how rare it is that people mean what they say in this business,” Rees said. “He’s just letting me make the best possible version of what I want to make.”

The director’s Sundance flick Mudbound — starring Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, and Mary J. Blige — was recently bought by Netflix for $12.5 million. The film, based on Hillary Jordan’s book of the same name, centres on a family, relocated to Mississippi, who find themselves struggling with racism and family member’s return from World War II.

The Independent recently caught up with Blum, who spoke about how financing horrors offers opportunities to work on Oscar-winning dramas, such as Whiplash.

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