With toy-related films all the rage (just look the Play-Doh movie from Emily V. Gordon and Jon M. Chu, Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie and Paramount’s “Transformers” franchise), Halloween fans have been left under-served — until now.
Spirit Halloween, the iconic costume and prop store with 1,425 locations across North America, has teamed with Strike Back Studios, Hideout Pictures and Particular Crowd for a feature-length family movie called, you guessed it, “Spirit Halloween.”
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Billed as a family/kids adventure movie, the project stars “Back to the Future’s” Christopher Lloyd and “She’s All That” star Rachael Leigh Cook, as well as some new faces.
“When a new Spirit Halloween store appears in a deserted strip mall, three middle-school friends who think they’ve outgrown trick-or-treating make a dare to spend the night locked inside the store Halloween night,” reads the logline. “But they soon find out that the store is haunted by an angry evil spirit who has possessed the creepy animatronic characters. The kids embark on a thrilling and spooky adventure in order to survive the night and avoid becoming possessed themselves.”
Joining Lloyd and Cook are Donavan Colan (“Zoe”), Dylan Frankel (“Raven’s Home”), Jaiden Smith (“Blue Bloods”) and Marissa Reyes (“Raven’s Home”)
Marla Gibbs (“El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie”) is also set to star in the film, which is helmed by David Poag, making his directorial feature debut. Billie Bates has written the screenplay.
Filming on “Spirit Halloween” has now wrapped, with the production aiming for an October 2022 release.
Courtesy of Strike Back Studios
“One of the reasons I immediately connected with the script is it is very much inspired by some of my favorite kid adventure films growing up from ‘The Goonies,’ ‘Gremlins,’ ‘Monster Squad’ and so many great films made by Amblin Entertainment,” said Noor Ahmed, president of Strike Back Studios.
Ahmed will produce “Spirit Halloween” with Shannon Houchins. Tomás’ Yanelevich, Peter Bevan, Mariana Sanjurjo and Clay Epstein are executive producing.
The production, which has secured a promotional partnership with Spirit Halloween, is a collaboration between Hideout Pictures (“Old Henry”) and WarnerMedia Latin America’s original film label Particular Crowd in association with Film Mode Entertainment (“As They Made Us”).
Strike Back Studios and Hideout Pictures also recently collaborated on “Asleep in My Palm,” starring Tim Blake Nelson, which wrapped in February.
Cook is represented by A3 Artists Agency and Fuller Law; Lloyd is represented by The Gersh Agency and Andrew Freeman Personal Manager; Gibbs is represented by Momentum Talent & Literary Agency; Colan is represented by Carson-Adler Agency and Sky Talent Group; Frankel is represented by CESD Talent Agency, Connecting Talent Company and Innovative Artists; Smith is represented by CESD Talent Agency; Reyes is represented by Stewart Talent and The Michael Abrams Group; Houchins by Verve Talent and Literary Agency; Vince Jolivette by attorney Adam W. Rosen; Potsy Ponciroli by Verve Talent and Literary Agency and Thruline Entertainment.
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