Harriet Slater, Anna Halberg, Spenser Cohen and Jacob Batalon on the set of "Tarot."
As Tarot continues to terrorize audiences, filmmakers Anna Halberg and Spenser Cohen are already at work on their next movie—and with a couple of horror luminaries, to boot.
Tarot—which is co-written, co-directed and co-produced by Halberg and Cohen—opened last weekend and made $10.2 million worldwide, already clearing the film’s $8 million production budget.
Starring Harriet Slater, Jacob Batalon, Adain Bradley and Avantika, the atmospheric horror thriller follows a group of college friends who become cursed when they break the unwritten rule of using someone else’s tarot deck for readings.
But this isn’t an ordinary tarot deck, as an evil entity dubbed “The Astrologer” has bound her soul to the cards. As such, The Astrologer comes to life via physical manifestations of the ghoulish characters on each of the cards dealt to its recipients—and a grisly fate awaits each of them.
With no time for rest, Halberg and Cohen are already busy at work on upcoming projects. One of them is a film that the duo is doing with horror maestros Jason Blum and James Wan, who earlier this year (via The Hollywood Reporter) merged their Blumhouse and Atomic Monster Production banners.
In the horror space, Blum, of course, brought Halloween back for modern audiences and produced such blockbusters as Get Out and The Black Phone; while Wan is the chief architect of The Conjuring movie universe and Insidious franchise.
“They’re a real powerhouse team and I feel so lucky that our next movie is going to be with them,” Halberg told me in a recent Zoom interview. “Spenser and I looked at a lot of James Wan’s movies while making Tarot and he’s such an incredible filmmaker. His and Jason’s companies together are such rocks in the horror community. They’re just such big forces.”
While Halberg has to keep details about the upcoming film she and Cohen are writing and directing together under wraps, she was able to note, “It’s very much a psychological thriller-slash-horror film.”
Halberg And Cohen Are Also Key Creatives On A Pair Of Other Upcoming Films
In addition to Anna Halberg and Spenser Cohen’s upcoming movie for Blumhouse and Atomic Monster, the duo also wrote and produced the upcoming sci-fi drama Distant for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment production house.
Distant—which stars Anthony Ramos (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and the upcoming Twisters) and Naomi Scott (Jasmine in the live-action version of Aladdin)—is awaiting its release from distributor Universal Pictures.
On top of that, Halberg and Cohen co-wrote and are executive producers on the upcoming Netflix
Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg on the "Tarot."
“It’s interesting because it has always been for us something at the forefront of what we think about,” Halberg observed. “Of course, in the last year or so AI has really become a prevalent topic in the world but the film community as well. So, I feel like it is more timely than ever to talk about artificial intelligence and what that looks like moving forward.”
As for what sort of hand fate will deal to Halberg and Cohen when it comes to the future of Tarot, the filmmaker said they’ll both be ready if a sequel, well, is in the cards.
“I think if there were an opportunity to do another one we know exactly what we would do with it,” Halberg said.
Also starring Humberly González, Larsen Thompson, Wolfgang Novogratz and Olwen Fouéré, Tarot is playing in theaters nationwide.
