{"id":847927,"date":"2026-09-14T21:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T21:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/847927\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T21:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T21:54:11","slug":"universal-pictures-blumhouse-atomic-monster-buying-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/847927\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Atomic Monster Buying ‘River’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Atomic Monster<\/a> are closing a blockbuster deal to buy Joshua Giuliano<\/a>\u2018s \u201cRiver<\/a>\u201d following the slasher film\u2019s world premiere at this year\u2019s Toronto International Film Festival. <\/p>\n

\u201cRiver\u201d was originally backed by Independent Film Company and Shudder, but Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster may have convinced the companies to sell the distribution rights to the horror film for north of $10 million, sources say. If the pact closes, it will likely be one of the biggest sales out of TIFF and will be a financial windfall for the indie studio.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a testament to how highly Giuliano is regarded by Universal and its longtime partner Blumhouse. But it shouldn\u2019t be a huge surprise. Last week, Blumhouse Atomic Monster and Universal\u2019s indie label, Focus Features, announced that they were making<\/a> \u201cOccupant,\u201d the next film from Giuliano, a rising star in the horror movie world. \u201cRiver\u201d is his feature debut. He wrote the script, in addition to directing it. <\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/a> \"A<\/a> <\/p>\n

The pact is a huge shot in the arm for Giuliano, whose trajectory seems to mirror that of Curry Barker, another talented young director who was also discovered at TIFF. Blumhouse and Focus released \u201cObsession\u201d after acquiring it for $15 million. It grossed $512.6 million globally and became one of the year\u2019s biggest hits. The companies have doubled down on the Barker business, setting up his next project \u201cAnything but Ghosts<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRiver\u201d follows three estranged siblings whose attempts to scatter their dad\u2019s ashes end with them adrift along a rural waterway while being stalked by a masked serial killer. The film was the first production for Shudder, which is Independent Film Company\u2019s horror-themed streaming service. <\/p>\n

IndieWire praised the film<\/a> in its TIFF review, writing, \u201cThough \u2018River\u2019 is destined to be seen at home on Shudder, this is one to catch on the big screen. In his first feature, Giuliano delivers a classic, visceral horror experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not shocking that Giuliano was on Blumhouse\u2019s radar. Earlier this year, the company hired Sam Zimmerman from Shudder<\/a> to oversee its indie slate. Giuliano worked on \u201cRiver\u201d during his time at Shudder, and that early championing helped the company recognize his talent for scaring the you-know-what out of audiences. <\/p>\n

\u201cRiver\u201d stars Jane Levy, Jessica Rothe, Max Mattern, and Dane DiLiegro. Its 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

Giuliano was part of the American Film Institute\u2019s directing program. His short films have won awards at genre festivals, Fantasia, Fantastic Fest, and FrightFest among them. He is represented by CAA, Kaplan Perrone Entertainment, and Marios Rush.<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for Universal, Blumhouse, and Independent Film Company declined to comment. <\/p>\n

In addition to Blumhouse Atomic Monster and Focus, Divide\/Conquer, and Spooky Pictures will produce \u201cOccupant.\u201d Blum and James Wan, who run Blumhouse Atomic Monster, have shown a talent for finding and developing up-and-coming talent. The company also backed \u201cBackrooms,\u201d a YouTube-inspired horror film from 20-year-old wunderkind Kane Parsons. A24 distributed that film, which earned $394.1 million worldwide.<\/p>\n

Will \u201cRiver\u201d be the next \u201cObsession\u201d or \u201cBackrooms\u201d? Universal appears to be banking on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Atomic Monster are closing a blockbuster deal to buy Joshua Giuliano\u2018s \u201cRiver\u201d following the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[205285,88,358658,206,21980],"class_list":["post-847927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-blumhouse-atomic-monster","tag-entertainment","tag-joshua-giuliano","tag-movies","tag-river"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}