Drew Hancock’s 2025 science fiction thriller, Companion, was a huge hit with audiences and critics, and it didn’t do too badly at the box office, either — pulling in $37 million off a $10 million budget. But while fans are still discovering his previous work via word-of-mouth, Hancock has already signed on for his next film for Amazon/MGM, with James Wan producing. Seasons will be a supernatural horror movie starring Lily James and it’s based on a short story that went viral on Reddit. And given the popularity around YouTube directors right now, and Backrooms being birthed from a viral Reddit image, it’s pretty clear what the studio is thinking here.
The premise is pretty simple actually: A couple relocates to their dream home in rural Idaho, only to discover that ancient spirits haunt their valley. In order to survive, the couple must submit to disturbing rituals with each change of season. Apparently, moving isn’t an option.
According to The InSneider, Hancock is adapting the source material, My Wife and I Bought a Ranch, a short story by Matt Query that became a hit on Reddit. After the story went viral, it caught the attention of literary manager and producer Scott Glassgold, who signed Query and sold the story for seven-figures. The idea has since expanded into a full novel, Old Country, which Matt co-wrote with his brother, Harrison Query.
Seasons was initially picked up by Netflix back in July 2020, but has now been acquired by Amazon/MGM.
While Companion wasn’t exactly a horror film, it’s clear that Hancock knows his way around the genre too. He’s also been attached to write a remake of the 1998 science fiction horror film The Faculty.
Reddit Is Becoming Hollywood’s Most Valuable IP Farm
The Seasons announcement is the latest signal that Hollywood has fully embraced social media (especially Reddit and YouTube) as a new source for film ideas. Of course, the shift has been building for years, but now that A24’s Backrooms has become such a huge success (more than $118 million globally), you’ll probably see a lot more films based on concepts and ideas they found online. They’re also probably on the lookout for more directors like Kane Parsons, who has a strong following online and has spent years building the Backrooms concept through a YouTube series under the pseudonym Kane Pixels.
The Backrooms concept actually began as a simple 4Chan image before it arrived on Reddit, where the r/backrooms community spent years expanding its lore.
As Reddit’s chief marketing officer Jim Squires told The Hollywood Reporter, the platform has become “a real-time IP incubator of sorts, with moderators and communities that are cultivating these spaces where stories and fandoms can grow organically.”
And according to reports, one agency has already confirmed that they’ve hired assistants to catalogue potential stories and individuals they believe could support compelling film ideas.
Seasons itself comes from the r/nosleep-adjacent tradition of long-form horror fiction posted directly to Reddit by amateur writers. That subreddit, dedicated to original scary stories told in first person, has become one of the most watched communities in Hollywood circles.
Sydney Sweeney is also attached to produce and star in another r/nosleep adaptation, I Pretended to Be a Missing Girl, being developed by Warner Bros.
Even Obsession, the Blumhouse horror film that opened to $17 million and then surged week after week to become a $332 million global hit, has become part of this same conversation. Like Backrooms and Seasons, it represents exactly the kind of original, low-budget IP that punches far above its weight — driven not by franchise recognition but by word-of-mouth, online communities, and a director with a distinct vision. That’s precisely the template Hollywood is now chasing on Reddit.
As we’ve noted previously on Fortress of Solitude, Curry Barker’s film represents a new type of filmmaker breaking through: digitally native, audience-aware, and building IP that resonates the way Reddit posts and YouTube videos do.
It’s clear that studios are quickly pivoting toward this in search of new creators.
Hancock, Wan, and James: Why Seasons Could Be the Next Big One
Hancock is clearly on many studios’ radars too. While he isn’t a YouTube filmmaker like the others, Companion could probably be categorized in the same boxes as Obsession and Backrooms — original films made for a very specific audience and for very low budgets. A supernatural horror story rooted in folk ritual and rural dread is a natural next step for the director, and if he can handle the production with the same care and keep the costs down, it could be another huge win.
And maybe that’s another lesson Hollywood can learn here: Give younger directors smaller budgets to play with. The results could be the next Backrooms or the next Obsession.
There is no release window attached to Seasons yet, but with Hancock, Wan, and James in place, Amazon/MGM has a genuine horror movie property in development at exactly the moment when Reddit-sourced genre IP is trending in the right direction.
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