Movie director William Brent Bell claims his newly released horror film ‘Brahms: The Boy II’ was greenlit thanks to people using the first film to troll Ivanka Trump’s husband – and adviser to her father Donald – Jared Kushner.
The 2016 feature, ‘The Boy’ wasn’t a film begging for a sequel. The $10 million horror film came and went in January that year with little fanfare, managing a modestly successful $35.8 million at the domestic box office – but receiving mostly bad reviews from critics and fans alike.
It is four years later, and ‘Brahms: The Boy II’ is dropping into theaters with a new cast – led by Katie Holmes – and a storyline that suggests more of a soft reboot. The sequel follows a family moving into a new home, only to find their young son making friends with a strange lifelike doll.
If you’re wondering why such a sequel exists, you’re not the only one. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Bell explained that the movie did not have a traditional path to being greenlit – and actually owes its very existence to social media trolls and their obsession with Kushner.
Bell says memes being shared online comparing Kushner to the well-groomed (but evil) doll Brahms in the first movie convinced the studio the film was ‘relevant’.
Ok can we talk about how Jared Kushner looks like Brahms, the creepy doll from The Boy pic.twitter.com/Vf5WXszBdG
— frank costanza’s lawyer (@_carrrmen) June 3, 2019
“That’s when Lakeshore called me and said, ‘this is really taking on a life of its own now in the zeitgeist of pop culture. You want to think about an idea for a sequel?'” Bell recalled.
It was after this conversation that Bell, who directed the first film, began developing ideas for a sequel with returning screenwriter Stacey Menear.
Whether or not developing an entire movie based on memes shared between digital activists is a good idea remains to be seen, but box office predictions are already underwhelming for ‘The Boy II’. While the first film opened to over $10 million, the sequel is expected to open in the single digits, with Thursday night previews not scaring up a whole lot of interest. The sequel has also so far managed to generate even worse reviews than the first film did.
