In the wake of Smile‘s box office success, scaring up $209 million worldwide, Paramount Pictures is going all-in on horror, appointing Walter Hamada to oversee their horror branch. Hamada, who recently left WB/DC, has a ton of horror cred from his time at New Line, producing countless horror movies including the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street remakes as well as The Conjuring and its various spinoffs and the 2017 adaptation of IT.
Beginning next year, Walter Hamada will oversee all things horror for Paramount, with The Hollywood Reporter‘s announcement today noting that “Hamada’s mandate will be to release several mid-budget horror films for theaters and streaming a year.”
“With his track record for groundbreaking success, Walter is the ideal partner and visionary to build out our mainstream horror genre franchise business,” said Paramount Pictures President and CEO Brian Robbins. “As evidenced by the fantastic performance of Smile, there is a tremendous appetite for original, high-concept storytelling in the global marketplace, and we look forward to a long and successful partnership.”
“I am thrilled to collaborate with Paramount Pictures with the singular goal of creating exceptional movies in the horror genre,” said Hamada. “Over the course of my career, nothing has been more gratifying than discovering emerging, first-time filmmakers and writers and unleashing their brilliance in a studio setting. Thank you to Brian and the entire team at Paramount Pictures for this tremendous opportunity, I can’t wait to get started.”
Most recently, Hamada had been working with Warner Bros. as part of the DC brand, producing and presiding over films including Joker, The Suicide Squad, and The Batman.
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