The battle for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise has been heating up for a few weeks now. A flurry of studios and filmmakers — around eight in total— were said to be pitching to secure the rights to the horror IP originally created by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel.
While no deal has been announced and no studio had emerged as a clear frontrunner, some names emerged as being very interested in acquiring the IP. Among them, Taylor Sheridan, Oz Perkins, Jordan Peele, and JT Mollner.
Speaking of Mollner, the “Strange Darling” filmmaker had pitched a version, in partnership with A24, which would include Glen Powell in a “creative role.”
Curiously, last night Mollner posted on his social media an image of Leatherface wielding his chainsaw. Is he trying to say something? This has stirred up speculation that he (and A24) may have come out the winner of the ‘Texas Chainsaw’ bidding war.
Meanwhile, this past weekend, Perkins confirmed at ComicCon that he and his producing partners “were certainly in the conversation” to nab the rights, but that he hadn’t heard back from them in a while.
Legendary Pictures has held the rights to the property and even made a ‘Texas Chainsaw’ movie in 2022 that streamed on Netflix. The IP has since returned to the rights holders – it is unclear who the group is, but they call themselves Verve.
The best ‘Texas Chainsaw’ was the original 1974 film. It’s very hard to replicate the atmosphere of that one, which felt eerily authentic and practically homemade. With that said, I can totally picture Mollner bringing the lo-fi energy of “Strange Darling” to a reboot.
