Apparently Steven Spielberg Played a Big Role in Saving The CHILD'S PLAY Horror Franchise
Here's a bit of fun movie trivia for you! After the 1988 horror film, Child's Play, ended up being a huge hit, the filmmakers and studio wanted to get a sequel into development fast. They had a hot new horror franchise that was going to make a lot of people a lot of money. As they started work on the sequel, though, things took an unexpected turn; someone came in and bought the studio and he wasn't interested in making horror movies.
During a recent interview with Bloody-Disgusting, co-creator David Kirschner, talked about this experience and how director Steven Spielberg was involved with saving the franchise. He explained:
"They immediately ordered a second film because it had done so well and was received so well. We were in pre-production and getting everything ready, and I’m on a plane to Cincinnati when Richard Burger (head of production for MGM and United Artists) called. ‘There’s a guy by the name of Christopher Skase at Quintex, they’re buying the company and don’t want to make horror movies,’ he said. I was enraged."
While Kirschner was pissed off at this, what he didn't expect was Hollywood to come knocking at his door trying to get a piece of the action. They just needed to find the right home for the Child's Play franchise to thrive.
"Within 24 hours, everyone in town is going to bidding on this thing. The phone started ringing like crazy. One of those phone calls were Steven Spielberg himself."
Spielberg basically pushed the Child's Play creators to meet with Universal Pictures first. As you know, Spielberg had a great relationship with that studio.
"Steven said, 'Look, you made your first film with Universal, just give them your wish list of what you want and I would have done my job in giving them the first crack at it.' I owe my career to him and that’s still the case today – I went back to them and said, 'Because of Steven, we’re bringing it to you first,' and they met almost all of the demands. That’s how we got into the relationship with Universal when five other studios were bidding on it."
The franchise is still thriving today. There's a Child's Play TV series in the works from the original creators and there's also a remake in development as well. Fans don't seem too thrilled about that remake, and ironically enough, it's MGM that is producing the reboot. The very studio that didn't want to keep the franchise around in the first place.
Creators Don Mancini, Kirschner, and actor Brad Dourif are all working on the TV series, but none of them are involved with the upcoming remake at MGM. It's going to be interesting to see the same franchise have two different visions of the project competing with each other.
Spielberg ended up paying tribute to Chucky by including him in one of the epic battle sequences in Ready Player One. Looks like he never forgot what he did for these guys.