Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions now wants to strike fear through people’s earbuds.
Blumhouse and radio and podcasting giant iHeartMedia reached a deal to produce a series of fictional podcast series for potential future film and television development, the companies announced. Under the pact, the companies will collaborate to develop and produce scripted podcasts in the horror genre, including thrillers, murder mysteries, and sci-fi audio-plays.
Any future film and TV projects developed out of the podcasts will be produced by Blumhouse and iHeartMedia.
The first podcast under the deal — supernatural horror series “The Mantawauk Caves” — is set to launch in early 2020 and will be distributed through the iHeartPodcast Network and other digital podcast platforms.
“The Mantawauk Caves,” from writer-director-producer Dan Bush (“The Signal,” “The Vault,” “The Dark Red”), weaves together narrative threads of a social drama and supernatural horror, following three boys who enter a cave in the Appalachian Mountains — and only one makes it out alive.
“We’re such avid fans of great podcasts at Blumhouse — the compelling storytelling that engrossing podcasts offer — and we were eager to partner with iHeartRadio to curate a slate of dark, fictional stories together,” Jason Blum said in a statement.
In addition to being available online, full episodes and excerpts of the co-produced podcasts will be distributed across iHeartMedia’s broadcast radio stations as well as via iHeartRadio’s social media channels.
“We think fiction is one of the next big genres in podcasting,” said Conal Byrne, president of the iHeartPodcast Network. “Blumhouse is truly masterful at creating some of the best suspense thrillers and horror movies around and, with their help, we can’t wait to introduce a series of captivating, world-class audio content to the iHeartPodcast Network.”
The scripted series podcast initiative will fall under the purview of Blumhouse Television co-presidents Jeremy Gold and Marci Wiseman. Couper Samuelson will oversee feature films.
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