Siegfried and Roy, Simon and Garfunkel, Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill; the world of entertainment has never been a stranger to perennial team-ups, and with such collaborations resulting in the likes of The Black Phone in the case of the latter pair, we’re here for it every day of the week.
The Black Phone was something of a passion project for the duo, with both of them departing the likes of Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in order to get started on the supernatural horror-thriller.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, The Black Phone writer C. Robert Cargill stated that his involvement with the Marvel Studios film was entirely trivial, as he hadn’t even penned a screenplay before he departed. He also noted his retroactive relief when other directors turned down the opportunity to helm The Black Phone, as he and Derrickson shared a similar enthusiasm for the project.
Well, I wasn’t working on the film; I was working on other stuff. So we didn’t have to do any soul searching because this was the movie we already had on deck for Scott to do after [Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness]. When we wrote it, we were like, “Well, Scott’s going on Strange, so he’s not gonna be able to direct it. So we sent it out to two directors, and thankfully, they both passed on it.
And as soon as Derrickson stepped away from Multiverse of Madness, the pair were all in on The Black Phone.
But then Scott was like, “I really want to direct this one. I want to make this movie. I have to make this movie. Can we wait?” He knew it was a big ask of me because it was this thing that I’d written and we weren’t going to sell it until it was time for him to do it. So that could mean a couple of years before we could make it, but I was like, “You know what? I’ll wait. Yeah, I want you to direct this. I think it’s right. Let’s wait and do that.” So it was already on deck, and as soon as he came back [from Multiverse], the answer was, “Let’s go make Black Phone.”
The Black Phone is currently playing in cinemas.