Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: companion

Companion Director Says The Film Is Actually "Six Different Genres"

Companion writer-director Drew Hancock says the film is being sold "as a horror-ish movie," but "it's six different genres."

A little genre bait and switch is always fun. It's not easy to pull off, but it can elevate an entire production when it works. The team behind Barbarian managed to pull it off once, and now they are looking to pull it off again with Companion. The film is less than a month away from being released, and we still have only the bare bones of the story. Now, is Warner Bros. once again failing to market a film, or is it the marketing trying to keep whatever is actually going on a secret?

Your guess is as good as ours at this point; Warner Bros. has been floundering  Joker: Folie à Deux crashed and burned, and they got a lot of rightful flack for handling Juror #2. The studio seemed to completely forget that The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim was being released, and they suffered for it, so we'll have to see if they are about to do the same to Companion. Writer-director Drew Hancock recently spoke to SFX Magazine about the different genres the film is juggling and the reaction one of the focus groups had to a test screening.

"[It's] ultimately the story of a guy and a girl breaking up. … We're selling this as a horror-ish movie, but it's six different genres," Hancock says. "I would actually put horror fourth or fifth down the list. .. We showed the film to two focus groups. One where people didn't know anything about it and one where they knew the twist. For the people who didn't know, it was like cotton candy. They did not see it coming. You could just hear collective awe."

Those big twists and moments are magic in a theater with a group of people, so if this film manages to pull off the twist Hancock says it is, we can hope people get to experience it in theaters. Back in the day, a January release date was for the stuff the studio couldn't put in better slots and award films, extending their limited run. However, in the last couple of years, plenty of films have done exceptionally well during the first couple of weeks of the year. There really isn't a dead zone anymore, and it's more experimental films like Companion that fit right into a place where they don't have to compete with the likes of a comic book movie or a sequel to an established IP.

Companion: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

New Line Cinema—the studio that brought you The Notebook—and the unhinged creators of Barbarian cordially invite you to experience a new kind of love story…

Written and directed by Drew Hancock (My Dead Ex, Suburgatory), Companion stars Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets, The Boogeyman), Jack Quaid (The Boys, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse), Lukas Gage (Smile 2, Dead Boy Detectives), Megan Suri (Never Have I Ever, It Lives Inside), Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows, Blue Beetle) and Rupert Friend (High Desert, Asteroid City). The film is produced by the filmmakers behind Barbarian—Raphael Margules, J.D. Lifshitz, Zach Cregger, and Roy Lee. The executive producers are Tracy Rosenblum and Jamie Buckner.

New Line Cinema presents A BoulderLight Pictures Production, In Association With Vertigo Entertainment/Subconscious: Companion. The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, in theaters only nationwide on January 31, 2025.

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