Jon Watts has mapped out six sequels to his horror movie Clown
These days, Jon Watts is best known for directing a trilogy of Spider-Man movies within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far from Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home – but he got his career started in the horror genre. His feature directorial debut was the 2014 supernatural horror film Clown, which got rolling because he and his friend Christopher Ford put together a faux trailer for the concept and slapped Eli Roth’s name on there as a producer. Roth took note of the trailer and decided to actually produce Clown as a feature film. The movie had some success internationally, but Dimension Films fumbled the release in the United States, not releasing the movie – which was shot in 2012 and had its premiere in 2014 – in the U.S. until 2016. It made $55,000 in its limited domestic release, but that didn’t stop Watts from moving on to much bigger projects. Now, Clown is getting a 4K Ultra HD courtesy of Turbine Medien in Germany, and during an interview with Variety, Watts revealed that he and Ford had big plans for Clown that haven’t yet come to fruition. In fact, they have already mapped out multiple sequels!
Clown told the story of a loving father who finds a clown suit for his son’s birthday party, only to realize the suit is part of an evil curse that turns its wearer into a killer. Andy Powers, Peter Stormare, Laura Allen, and Elizabeth Whitmere star.
Speaking with Variety, Watts said, “The big joke we had after we made it was that we didn’t really make a horror film about a man turning into a clown. We made a psychological thriller. Looking back at it now, I’m like, ‘Oh, I should have leaned into the horror a little bit more.’ It’s more of a character study than anything else. In retrospect, that was part of the joke, that we took this really ridiculous premise so seriously. But now I watch it, and I think I wish that I’d had enough time to really extend some of the kill sequences to be even crazier. 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.” I found Clown to be too dour and depressing, not nearly as much fun as it should have been, so I would love to see a version of the story that was more in the Evil Dead 2 vein.
Asked if he had ever thought about making a sequel to the film, Watts answered, “Yeah, Ford and I have it all 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. … It’s hard to talk about clowns post-John Wayne Gacy, because before that, there wasn’t the same sort of evil attached to a clown. A clown was genuinely a positive thing that people liked. I think it’s the mask. It’s the creepy level of makeup and the strange smile that is just genuinely disturbing. Like, yes, there’s a person under there, but you don’t really know who it is. I think that’s what always sort of creeped me out. But I still like good, positive clowns too. There are people that are genuinely good clowns that entertain people. I don’t want everyone to think that all clowns are scary, so I feel a little bad for being a part of that. I know some really great clowns, and I feel a little bit guilty for making everyone be scared of clowns when all clowns really want to do is bring joy and smiles. … I think within the seven-part Clown series, though, there’s a role for a good clown. We have a pretty detailed outline of everything that we would ever want to do. We’re still treating it like a funny prank that maybe someday will come true. It’s very fun to come up with ideas for clowns. It definitely touches a nerve culturally. If anyone out there is interested in really doing a deep character study of what it feels like to slowly and painfully transform into an ancient clown demon, they know where to reach me.“
Watts followed Clown with the thriller Cop Car, then went on his three-film journey with Spider-Man. At one point, he was signed on to direct The Fantastic Four: First Steps as well, but he decided to step back from the superhero world and made the action comedy Wolfs instead. He has also worked in television, on the FX series The Old Man and the Disney+ series Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. He recently circled back to horror to produce Final Destination: Bloodlines, and is producing the next sequel in that franchise as well.
Would you like to see Jon Watts bring his Clown sequel plans to the screen? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
The post Jon Watts has mapped out six sequels to his horror movie Clown appeared first on JoBlo.