Lionsgate has taken over Dylan Clark’s horror feature Portrait of God after Universal let the project go. The film stars Chase Infiniti and adapts the filmmaker’s YouTube short of the same name. Sam Raimi and Jordan Peele are attached as producers.
It is Clark’s second Lionsgate project: he is set to make his feature directing debut with a new Blair Witch Project for the studio.
A stronger bet before Blair Witch
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson framed the pickup as a creative bet, not just a genre gap-fill. In a statement, he called the package “haunting, thought-provoking, and scary as hell” and pointed to Raimi, Peele and Infiniti as the reasons the project stands out.
For Clark, the deal puts two of his features under one roof before his first one releases. He said Infiniti “blew me away” in One Battle After Another and called her “one of the most exciting young actors working today.” Infiniti recently led The Julia Set, which premiered at TIFF in September.
Why Universal passed matters
The source does not state why Universal dropped the project. What is clear is that Universal has not stepped away from horror or from YouTube-born filmmakers.
- Universal’s Focus Features picked up Curry Barker’s Obsession out of TIFF 2025 and released it in May 2026; it earned more than $500 million, making it the highest-grossing film ever to cost under $1 million and the highest-grossing festival acquisition of all time.
- Universal and Blumhouse paid more than $10 million for River at TIFF 2026, another horror debut from writer-director Josh Giuliano.
So the Portrait of God move is not a genre retreat. It looks more like a portfolio decision at a studio that is already crowded with festival horror bets.
The takeaway for content teams
For entertainment buyers, this deal signals that short-form horror creators on YouTube are becoming an early-stage pipeline, not just a festival lottery.
- Track creator-directors before their festival debuts price them higher.
- Pair platform-native filmmakers with established genre producers to de-risk a first feature.
- Treat a studio attachment as provisional until production is locked.
Raimi and Rob Tapert will produce through Ghost House, while Peele and Win Rosenfeld will produce through Monkeypaw Productions. Joe Russo co-wrote the screenplay with Clark and is also a producer. Romel Adam and Jose Cañas oversee for Ghost House, Chris Rosati executive produces for Monkeypaw, and Scott O’Brien oversees the project.
Source: TheWrap
