Blumhouse Is Developing a PUPPET MASTER Remake and a TV Series Could Follow

Blade and his murderous little buddies may be getting ready to carve their way into the mainstream.

Blumhouse is developing a remake of Puppet Master, the long-running killer puppet horror franchise that has spent nearly four decades lurking in the wonderfully strange corners of independent horror. The deal could also eventually lead to a Puppet Master TV series.

For horror fans who grew up wandering video store aisles, Puppet Master holds a special place in the genre. Created by Charles Band and Kenneth J. Hall, the franchise kicked off in 1989 through Band’s Full Moon Features and introduced audiences to Andre Toulon and his collection of deadly living marionettes, including the franchise’s blade-wielding mascot, Blade.

While Puppet Master didn’t receive the kind of major theatrical exposure that helped turn characters such as Chucky and Freddy Krueger into household horror icons, it became a cult favorite and grew into a surprisingly massive franchise. There are now 15 feature films, along with comic books and video games.

Now Blumhouse wants to take a crack at it. Band revealed the deal in his new book, Horror Puppet, explaining that Blumhouse has optioned the property for a major reboot while leaving him in control of the existing Puppet Master films and merchandise.

“We finally closed a deal with Blumhouse, the biggest name in what’s left of the horror world. It was a lucrative option deal for them to make a big reboot of Puppet Master. A movie, yes, and possibly a series as well. Best of all, I get to hold onto all my Puppet Master stuff, the movies and the merch. Honestly, I can’t wait to see what they come up with.”

The excerpt was shared online by a fan on Facebook. Horror Puppet is currently available exclusively through the Full Moon Horror official website, with a wider release planned for bookstores and Amazon beginning this September.

Blumhouse certainly makes sense as a home for a new Puppet Master. The company has become one of Hollywood’s dominant horror producers, building and expanding franchises such as Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and The Purge.

It has also found huge success with movies including Get Out, M3GAN, and Five Nights at Freddy’s, with its films produced under a long-standing first-look deal with Universal Pictures.

The structure of the Puppet Master deal is especially interesting because Band hasn’t sold the franchise outright. Blumhouse has an option to develop new material, while Band keeps ownership of the existing movies and merchandise.

He took a similar approach with 2018’s Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, which was handed off to Cinestate while remaining separate from Band’s control over the original franchise. In other words, whatever Blumhouse ultimately decides to do with its version, Band can continue controlling the established Puppet Master catalog and continuity.

Then there’s the potential TV series. Despite the ridiculous amount of Puppet Master material produced over the years, the franchise has never had a scripted television show.

It expanded into comics through Eternity Comics and Action Lab Comics and eventually made the jump into gaming with Puppet Master: The Game, but television remains unexplored territory.

Band actually attempted to get a Puppet Master TV project going in the early 2000s, but it never made it into production. With Blumhouse’s resources and distribution connections now involved, that old idea suddenly seems considerably more realistic.

A series could also be a great format for this wonderfully bizarre universe. There are plenty of puppets, mythology, characters, and decades of horror history to pull from, and a show could spend more time exploring Andre Toulon and the origins of his creations while introducing a completely new collection of victims for Blade and company to terrorize.

Of course, there’s already one major request coming from longtime fans: Please don’t turn the puppets into a bunch of CGI creatures.

Part of what made those original Puppet Master movies memorable was seeing physical puppets brought to life through practical effects and stop-motion animation. The imperfections were part of the personality.

Watching Blade, Pinhead, Tunneler, Leech Woman and the rest of the crew physically move through a scene gave them a tactile creepiness that slick digital animation could easily lose.

Blumhouse has an opportunity to embrace that old-school craftsmanship while giving Puppet Master the budget and exposure it rarely enjoyed during its original run. Modern filmmaking techniques could certainly complement the practical work, but hopefully the actual puppets remain front and center.

There’s currently no director, cast, production date, or release date announced for the Blumhouse Puppet Master remake, and the potential TV series appears to be even further down the road. An option deal also doesn’t guarantee that either project will ultimately make it into production.

Still, seeing Puppet Master land at one of the biggest names in modern horror is pretty cool. This franchise has survived for almost 40 years without ever becoming the mainstream horror property it arguably could have been.

And if Blumhouse gives us nasty practical puppet effects, stop-motion animation, plenty of tiny weapons, and a group of deeply unfortunate humans trapped in a building with these little maniacs, I’m absolutely in.