Jon Watts is best known for directing the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man films, but he made his feature debut in the horror genre with Clown.
With Germany’s Turbine Medien releasing the 2014 film on 4K Ultra HD this week, Watts has opened up about his desire to turn Clown into a franchise.
“I still see a lot of potential in the premise, so when I watch it now, I’m like, ‘Oh, we could have done so much more there.’ I’d love for it to be like Evil Dead 2. I’d love to tell the same story, but jump off to even crazier places,” he told Variety.
Watts says that he and Clown co-writer Christopher Ford have a sequel mapped out.
“We’d want to do seven of them, make it a real long-term franchise like the Leprechaun or something like that. There are a lot of facets to the story that we’re still interested in telling, because it’s great. It’s kind of an evergreen premise where anyone can put on the suit.”
In Clown, a father dresses up in an old clown suit in an attempt to save his son’s birthday party, only to discover that it’s cursed — and there’s no way to remove it.
The project began as a faux trailer, embedded below. When Eli Roth got wind of it, he boarded the feature as a producer and secured financing. Despite a botched theatrical release from Dimension Films, Clown has garnered a cult following.
Watts recently made his return to horror with Final Destination Bloodlines, for which he conceived the story and served as a producer.
