The Black Phone
Summary
The Black Phoneauthor Joe Hill reflects upon the movie adaptation ’s achiever days after he was pay a shockingly low amount for the original story . Hill print the original short story in 2004 before becoming a well - known author . year later , Scott Derrickson and his long - clock time collaborator C. Robert Cargill decided to make it into a movie . The movie follows Finney ( Mason Thames ) , a child held captive by infamous kidnaper The Grabber ( Ethan Hawke ) , who receives aid via a black sound from The Grabber ’s previous victims . It show a commercial-grade success despite its modest origins and little budget .
Hillrecently took to X to ruminate onThe Black Phone ’s successwhile commemorating the re - release of his story asThe Black Phone Stories .
Hill expressed his gratitude to Derrickson for creating " such a scary and dear motion picture " from his report . to boot , he revealed that when he wrote the tale in 2004 , he was pay just $ 35 for it .
The Black Phone’s Unique Origin Story
It ’s surprising to discover that Hill only receive $ 35 forThe Black Phone , which went on to become a movie that broke $ 100 million at the box bureau . The film was so successful that a subsequence , The Black Phone 2 , is currently in evolution . Hill antecedently revealed that he initially wanted his short story to be a novel , as there was enough content to expand the story , which the film did . However , at the time , he was a fail novelist with four unpublished books , and as a final result , he did n’t believe he could pull off his idea as a novel .
Hence , he soldThe Black Phoneto his editor for $ 35 because he knew that would guarantee its publication . It ’s no mystery in the writing industry that short tarradiddle are n’t particularly lucrative , so the amount Hill receive was n’t actually very strange . Still , he persist in working his way up with further unretentive stories and , by 2007 , published his first novel , Heart - mould Box . 2007 was also the twelvemonth he confirmed his identity as Joe Hillström King — Stephen King ’s boy . Hill deal short level for $ 35 just to guarantee he organically build his composition career instead of capitalize on his Church Father ’s fame .
Even before Hill ’s identity operator became known , he had made a name for himself , having welcome multiple Bram Stoker Awards . His career has only continued to grow in both writing and on silver screen , include such adaptation asNetflix’sLocke & Key , Horns , andNOS4A2 .
The Black Phone ’s achiever story is quite inspirational . Derrickson confirmed that he find the write up before learning of Hill ’s personal identity and was immediately intrigued by it . It ’s strange for a non - established horror author ’s work to take hold of a filmmaker ’s eye or for a horror film with a meek $ 18 million budget to be a box function hit . The Black Phone ’s singular pedigree iterate the untapped potential in non - conventional writer and short narrative and that prominent names and big budgets are n’t the only recipe to achiever .
Source : Joe Hill / Twitter
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Cast
Based on Joe Hill ’s short story of the same name , The Black Phone follow teenager Finney Blake ( Mason Thames ) after he is abducted by a man jazz only as the Grabber ( Ethan Hawke ) . Trapped in a cellar with only a disordered earphone , Finney begins to hear from the Grabber ’s old victims , each of which gives him qabalistic cue to help him fight back against his captor .
