{"id":892533,"date":"2026-09-15T05:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T05:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892533\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T05:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T05:40:15","slug":"universal-blumhouse-in-talks-to-nab-tiff-slasher-river-from-ifc-shudder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892533\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal, Blumhouse in Talks to Nab TIFF Slasher ‘River’ From IFC, Shudder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Atomic Monster are closing a more than $10 million deal to acquire Josh Giuliano\u2019s feature debut \u201cRiver\u201d from IFC\/Shudder, TheWrap has learned.<\/p>\n

This follows the film\u2019s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Universal had no comment.<\/p>\n

Written and directed by Giuliano, the slasher stars Jane Levy (\u201cEvil Dead\u201d), Jessica Rothe (\u201cHappy Death Day\u201d) and Max Mattern (\u201cDevil in Disguise: John Wayne\u201d) as three estranged siblings who reunite in their hometown after the death of their father. They set out to scatter his ashes at his favorite spot on a remote river, but when their boat breaks down, the trip devolves into a waking nightmare. Dane DiLiegro (\u201cPrey\u201d) also stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cRiver\u201d opened TIFF\u2019s Midnight Madness section, which last year saw such films as \u201cObsession\u201d and \u201cNirvanna the Band the Show the Movie\u201d among its lineup. With all eyes on the section this year to find a prospective runaway hit, Midnight Madness programmer Peter Kuplowsky<\/a> told TheWrap ahead of the festival that \u201cRiver\u201d was the one to watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh is going to be a filmmaker that a lot of people are going to want to work with,\u201d he said, praising the film as \u201cone of the most suspenseful slashers I\u2019ve seen in years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jane\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Audiences seem to agree, with the movie scoring positive reviews<\/a> and receiving a rowdy, cheer-filled reception at its midnight premiere. When leaving TheWrap\u2019s studio the morning after the premiere, Giuliano confirmed that he is already \u201cthinking about\u201d making a sequel to \u201cRiver\u201d in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cRiver\u2019s\u201d producers include Nick Antosca, Alex Hedlund and Steven Schneider. Executive Producers include Roy Lee, Ben Ross, Matt Brodlie, Jonathan Kier, Jeffrey Tinnell, Robert Tinnell and Jason Blum.<\/p>\n

The acquisition grows out of a relationship that predates the deal. Sam Zimmerman, who now leads the Indies slate at Blumhouse Atomic Monster, worked with Giuliano on \u201cRiver\u201d during his time at Shudder, and that early championing helped the company recognize his talent and bring both the film and the filmmaker into its slate.<\/p>\n

Giuliano is an emerging horror filmmaker, who was part of the American Film Institute\u2019s directing program. His short films have won awards at genre festivals such as Fantasia, Fantastic Fest and FrightFest.\u00a0He is repped by CAA, Kaplan Perrone Entertainment and Marios Rush.<\/p>\n

Last week, it was announced that Blumhouse Atomic Monster, Divide\/Conquer and Spooky Pictures<\/a> have signed on for Giuliano\u2019s next film, \u201cOccupant,\u201d which will be released by Focus. Written and directed by Giuliano, the logline for \u201cOccupant\u201d is currently being kept under wraps. Producers are Jason Blum (Blumhouse Atomic Monster), Steven Schneider (Spooky Pictures), Greg Gilreath and Adam Hendricks (Divide\/Conquer). Executive producers include Daniel Bekerman, Derek Bish\u00e9, Neil Mathieson, Allie Steffler, Sam Zimmerman and Jeremy Kulyk. The film is set up in association with Closer Media and Talking Pictures.<\/p>\n

Indiewire<\/a> was first to report the news.<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Josh\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Atomic Monster are closing a more than $10 million deal to acquire Josh Giuliano\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,11117,134,156736,462004,344,7743,462005,1844],"class_list":["post-892533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blumhouse","tag-entertainment","tag-ifc","tag-josh-giuliano","tag-movies","tag-river","tag-shuffer","tag-universal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}