Director Scott Derrickson has revealed the first look at Ethan Hawke's masked killer in his new horror film The Black Phone. The film is based on the short story by Joe Hill, which follows a young boy who is captured by a serial killer that traps him in a bloody basement. The basement is fit with an old, black phone that rings with the voices of the killer's child victims on the other line. In the upcoming film, the murdered children attempt to help the boy escape the basement, while he's being tormented by the mysterious masked killer.
Derrickson wrote the screenplay with C. Robert Cargill and the cast features Hawke, Jeremy Davies, Mason Thames, E. Roger Mitchell, and James Ransone. This is the first new film from the director after he bowed out of directing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness for Marvel. The trailer for The Black Phone recently debuted at CinemaCon with many attendees saying it was the scariest trailer they'd ever seen. Hawke said that he broke his "no bad guys" rule for the film, in which he'll play the lead villain for the first time.
Now, Derrickson has provided the first look at Hawke's masked killer in The Black Phone, a mysterious, nameless serial killer. The image features Hawke in a horned mask, wearing all black and with his left arm seemingly bandaged up. In addition to the image, Derrickson also announced that the film will premiere on September 25 at this year's Fantastic Fest film festival. The director also revealed he'll also be debuting a "quarantine short film" entitled Shadowprowler at the festival. Take a look at the image and details below:
Derrickson got his start in the horror genre with The Exorcism of Emily Rose and then moved on to sci-fi with the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves. In 2012, the director helmed Sinister (his first film with Hawke) and then in 2014 directed another exorcism-themed film, Deliver Us From Evil. He then made the jump into the Marvel big leagues in 2016 with Doctor Strange. After a five-year hiatus, Derrickson now re-enters the horror genre with The Black Phone and will then switch it up again with the sci-fi thriller Bermuda.
Ethan Hawke has been a prolific actor since he entered the scene in the 1980s, but The Black Phone marks a new type of role for the actor that will hopefully allow him to show a new side of himself. Although he says this is the first time he's broken his "bad guy" rule, Hawke is also playing the villain in the Disney+ Marvel show, Moon Knight with Oscar Isaac. The actor is coming off a powerful performance in the mini-series The Good Lord Bird and will next be seen in Training Day director Antoine Fuqua's next film, The Guilty with Jake Gyllenhaal and Rian Johnson's Knives-Out sequel. With such a diverse and well-rounded resume, it's about time Hawke stepped into a new light, which will surely be yet another showcase for the intense actor, wearing a mask or not.
Source: Scott Derrickson/Twitter
