'Rosemary’s Baby' Prequel 'Apartment 7A' Gets “Peak Screaming" Paramount+-Original Release

The film has been in the works for a while, casting in 2022 will be a likely be a headliner for this year’s Halloween content

Last October, Paramount+ released a prequel film to the classic Stephen King novel Pet Sematary, called Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, exclusively to the platform as part of its “Peak Screaming” Halloween festivities. It was unclear which adaptation it was a prequel to, but it starred Jackson White, Henry Thomas and David Duchovny among others. While the release of Paramount+-original narrative films looks to be less consistent than last year, the platform has announced that there’s at least still going to be one to serve a similar purpose, and it’s another prequel to a horror classic: Rosemary’s Baby, titled Apartment 7A. Insert comments about originality being dead here.

Apartment 7A is directed by Natalie Erika James and stars Ozark and Inventing Anna’s Julia Garner, who has The Wolf Man and Marvel Studios’s The Fantastic Four (the latter in the role of Silver Surfer Shalla-Bal) ahead of her in 2025. Rosemary’s Baby was originally released in 1968, directed by the now-disgraced Roman Polanski, based on the novel of the same name by Ira Levin and starring Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes as a young couple who are trying to start a family, and as the ensuing pregnancy grows turbulent become suspicious of the neighbors. The titular apartment they take residence in had quite the tragic reputation before they moved in, and this prequel will explore the event immediately before that left it available for them, as it is set just beforehand. As the logline describes “When a struggling, young dancer (played by Garner) suffers a devastating injury, she finds herself drawn in by dark forces when a peculiar, well-connected, older couple promises her a shot at fame.”

'The Fantastic Four' Heralds Julia Garner As Its Silver Surfer

Jeff Grossman, executive vice president of programming at Paramount+ boasts in the press release “Apartment 7A is the perfect way to kick off the Halloween season. Director Natalie Erika James and the prodigious creative team have crafted a chilling and clever new entry into the genre.”. The film also stars departed Mayor of Kingstown star Dianne Wiest, Across the Universe’s Jim Sturgess and Kevin McNally, who recently starred in Doctor Who’s Flux season, as well as Wonka’s Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, as well as Marli Siu, Andrew Buchan, and Rosy McEwen.

Made in association with Paramount Pictures, Apartment 7A is a production with Michael Bay’s company Platinum Dunes and Sunday Night, the production company of A Quiet Place star (and director) and IF director John Krasinski and Allyson Seeger with a screenplay by James, Christian White and Skylar James, executive produced by Vicki Dee Rock and Alexa Ginsburg, and is also produced by Andrew Form and Brad Fuller.

It seems, from previously-received 2024 roadmaps, that the film was originally looking at a Q2 release. So far this year, the straight-to-Paramount+ film output (non-documentary) has consisted of The Tiger’s Apprentice, The Thundermans Return, and Little Wing. Nothing else thus far, nor with definitive dates for anything upcoming. Could be a shift in strategy, could be a hobbling by the dual strikes. However, the streamer did publicly confirm on Friday that a second animated The Loud House movie, No Time To Spy: A Loud House Movie, was coming soon with a new teaser released to Instagram and began advertising on the service. It is the first of its kind there, after having given The Loud House Movie and The Casagrandes Movie, and only having the live-action A Loud House Christmas and A Really Haunted Loud House. Plot and character details aren’t available (no press release), but it’s definitely got show shading. It’s coming soon, so it doesn’t have a release date revealed yet either.

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Source: Paramount Press Express