ALAMY, LANDMARK, REX FEATURES
on to star in dystopian home-invasion movie
The Purge. And, with Blumhouse aiming to
bring all original movies in for $5 million,
Hawke agreed to help keep costs down in an
unorthodox fashion. “He stayed on our sofa,”
laughs Blum. “He actually did.” Blum is proud
of the success of his formula, with big-name
actors working for scale in the hope of big
percentages coming their way further down
the line. “We’ve paid out a lot of money to
people,” admits the producer. “I put the
cheque in the mail and ilm myself putting
it through the post ofice.”WHIPLASH__(2014)
At irst glance, Damien Chazelle’s drama about
the battle between a young jazz drummer and
his tyrannical teacher is the outlier in the
producer’s recent output. Not just because
it won three Oscars, but it’s not a scary movie.
Blum disagrees. “It’s a Sundance version ofa horror movie,” he says. “Especially in terms
of its themes and tone.” Blum also produced
the original short that was a proof of concept
for the movie, which cost around $3 million to
make, but then struggled to sell the full-length
feature. “We did a pretty crummy deal with
Sony Classics, but it’s a great reminder: keep your
head down and do your thing. If you listen to the
noise, you won’t do anything.”THE GIFT__(2015)
Another Blumhouse maxim: the director is in
control. And that extends to irst-time directors
and actors-turned-directors. In the case of Joel
Edgerton, he was both when he pitched the dark
psychological thriller (initially calledWeirdo) that
is now recognised as one of Blumhouse’s very
best. “I feel a movie either works or doesn’t work
because of performance,” says Blum. “Who
better to deal with that than actors? I’ll hopefully
do another movie with Joel.”THEPURGE:ELECTIONYEAR__(2016)
When it comes to sequels, Blum loosens the
purse strings a bit. “If you have a movie that
works, the risk goes down exponentially,”
he explains. “The Purge: Election Yearwas
$10 million. That’s still incredibly cheap by
Hollywood standards, but by Blumhouse
standards it wasn’t.”The Purgeseries bloomed
— or Blumed — from that irst house-bound
horror, with writer-director James DeMonaco
introducing more characters, bigger action, and a
political streak a mile wide. Releasing a movie
about a dystopian America in 2016, and calling it
Election Year, takes somecojones. “We were very
cognisant that it was an election year, and we
wanted to make the third one more political for
sure,” says Blum. “I think James has a crystal
ball. He saw into the future.”THE PURGE: ELECTION YEARIS OUT NOW ON DVD,
BLU-RAY AND DOWNLOADClockwise from main:The
Purge: Election Year;
Whiplash; Insidious; Sinister.
Inset:Jason Blum.