EXCLUSIVE: The long running ABC series Fantasy Island is being reconstituted as a feature film by Blumhouse and Sony Pictures, the latter of which controls the rights to the Aaron Spelling series which ran from 1977-84. Jeff Wadlow is directing. He just teamed with Blumhouse on Truth Or Dare, the genre film that grossed $100 million worldwide on a $5 million budget. Blumhouse will co-finance the film with Sony.

Wadlow is writing with Truth or Dare co-scribes Chris Roach and Jillian Jacobs and Jason Blum is producing. Wadlow will be exec producer along with Blumhouse’s Couper Samuelson. Ryan Turek is overseeing for Blumhouse and Matt Milam for Sony.

The instinct is to recall the series as being a bit cheesy, propelled by the Fantasy Island opening where Herve Villechaize’s Tattoo would beckon the island overseer Mr Roarke (Ricardo Montalban) with cries of ‘Boss, de plane, de plane.’ But the series actually dealt with dark themes and the supernatural as visitors come to the island to live out their fantasy wishes, which puts it right in the Blumhouse wheelhouse. Wadlow previously directed Kick-Ass 2, Never Back Down and True Memoirs Of An International Assassin.

For Blumhouse, this continues a lean in toward branded properties, including Halloween which brings back Jamie Lee Curtis and John Carpenter and Glass, which springs from the Blumhouse genre hit Split with James McAvoy and provides the long anticipated sequel of M Night Shymalan’s Unbreakable with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson.

Blumhouse last night premiered in New York the Spike Lee-directed Cannes smash Blackkklansman, which opens August 10. It is coming off the releases The First Purge and Unfriended: The Dark Web, as well as Upgrade. Wadlow is repped by UTA, Artists First and attorney David Matlof. Roach & Jacobs are repped by Verve.