Gretchen Palek: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is exploring more nightmarish roommates.

EXCLUSIVE: Chris McCumber is departing Blumhouse Television after three years as President. The unit’s President of Production, Jeremy Gold, will step into the top role on an interim basis while search is underway for a new head of the TV group which is getting downsized, with several people — believed to be less than 10 — being laid off today. (Blumhouse’s total headcount in film and TV is almost 100.)

EXCLUSIVE: Horror studio Blumhouse and natural history producer Plimsoll Productions have teamed up on a new factual series.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterThe scripted and unscripted series based on “The Battersea Poltergeist” from Blumhouse Television and Maniac Productions have been set up at Peacock for development, Variety has learned exclusively.Both projects are based on the BBC Radio 4 docu-drama podcast “The Battersea Poltergeist.” It was first announced as being in the works in May 2021, though no network or streaming service was attached at that time.The shows are meant to be the first installment of a new anthology series called “Blumhouse’s Ghost Story.” “The Battersea Poltergeist” tells the story of strange events that occurred in 1956 in Battersea, South London, when 15-year old Shirley Hitchings first began being terrorized by a powerful force. The events were investigated over a 12-year period, becoming the longest documented poltergeist haunting in history.