Gary Dauberman Signs First-Look Deal With Blumhouse Atomic

Gary Dauberman, the writer behind several horror hits, has signed a first-look producing deal with Blumhouse Atomic, The Hollywood Reporter reported on Friday 13 November 2026.

A first-look deal gives a company the first chance to develop a producer's or writer's new projects. It does not guarantee that anything gets made. Blumhouse Atomic is run by Jason Blum and James Wan, two producers known for low-budget horror.

The deal runs through Dauberman's own production company, Coin Operated. He founded it in 2020, and its president is Mia Maniscalco. Coin Operated previously had a first-look deal with Sony.

Dauberman's track record in the genre is long. He wrote the Conjuring spinoffs Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation and The Nun. He then made his directing debut with Annabelle Comes Home, which he also wrote. Before that, he wrote the 2017 film adaptation of Stephen King's It for Warner Bros., directed by Andy Muschietti.

He is also attached to the next chapter of another horror franchise. Dauberman was hired to write the script for the third Five Nights at Freddy's film, based on the video game series. That project is one of the reasons his name has been linked to the growing number of games turned into movies.

For a general reader, the practical point is simple. A writer with a proven run of horror films now has a long-term home at a company that has built its name on the genre. Each first-look deal is a bet that a writer will keep producing ideas worth developing. Whether any of those ideas reach cinemas will depend on the usual steps: a script, financing, a studio that agrees to distribute the film, and a release date.

Any titles that come out of it are still to be announced.