Dropping by
Christopher Landon takes his horror to a new level in Drop
WORDS: ROBBIE DUNLOP
Is Henry (Brandon Sklenar) a bit shifty…?
PICTURES: BERNARD WALSH/UNIVERSAL PICTURES. STOCK IMAGES: TURKAN RAHIMLI/GETTY
OMETIMES THE BEST ideas come from the most unlikely sources. The lightbulb moment for the very up-to-theminute premise of Blumhouse and Platinum Dunes’ Drop was a series of anonymous messages received by producer Cameron Fuller and his family on their phones during dinner at a restaurant.
“They were totally innocent, nothing creepy,” director Christopher Landon assures SFX. “But Cameron spent the whole night trying to figure out who was doing it, and he never solved the mystery. He felt there was a movie idea in there.”
Fuller set the wheels in motion, tasking Truth Or Dare and Fantasy Island writers Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach to develop a story geared around AirDrops – media sent wirelessly from one mobile device to another within close range. While Landon found himself drawn to a “unique, fun and suspenseful” script, an initial approach to him to direct coincided with preparatory work on Scream 7.
“There was a point where I actually got kind of sad because I felt, oh man, I may not actually get to make it if they don’t feel like waiting for me. They might want to make it now, and then they’ll have to give it to another director. And then fate had other plans,” he sighs, referencing his departure from the horror sequel. “And so I got to make this movie, and it feels like the movie I was supposed to make.”