'The Black Phone' Will Reunite Ethan Hawke With 'Sinister' Director Scott Derrickson

Ethan Hawke is reuniting with his Sinister director Scott Derrickson for the upcoming Blumhouse horror movie The Black Phone. The film is based on a short story by Joe Hill in which a boy is kidnapped and locked away in a basement with a disconnected phone that suddenly starts to ring. It was recently reported that Jeremy Davies would be joining the cast as well, and I theorized that Davies would be playing the kidnapper since he kind of has the market cornered on playing intense, weird guys. But as it turns out, it's Hawke who will be playing the kidnapper character.The Black Phone producers Blumhouse broke the news that Ethan Hawke would be joining the cast of Scott Derrickson's upcoming flick. The film tells the story of a "kidnapped kid who finds himself in a soundproof basement surrounded by the remains of other victims. When night falls, the antique — and disconnected — telephone in the room begins to ring with the calls from the dead." The official press release doesn't mention who Hawke is playing, but THR has confirmed the actor will be playing the kidnapper.

Hawke joins a cast that includes  Mason Thames (For All Mankind), Madeleine McGraw (Toy Story 4, Secrets of Sulphur Springs), and Jeremy Davies (Lost). Derrickson wrote the script with frequent collaborator C. Robert Cargill, based on a short story by Joe Hill. The story is effective and creepy, but it's also pretty clear that Derrickson and Cargill are adding their own spin and not remaining 100% faithful to the source material – and that's fine.

I'm very interested to see Hawke in this type of role. He doesn't usually play villainous characters, and to see him go into full-blown creeper mode is going to be interesting. I also like the idea of Hawke reuniting with the Sinister team of Derrickson and Cargill. Production on The Black Phone is set to start in North Carolina next month, and I imagine it won't be a long shoot since the majority of the story takes place in one location with very few characters. After that, Hawke is set to join the cast of the Disney+ Marvel series Moon Knight. He'll be playing a villain there, too, so perhaps we're entering a new phase where Ethan Hawke plays antagonists for a change.

There's no release date set yet for The Black Phone, but it seems likely we won't see it until sometime next year.