‘Happy Death Day’s Jessica Rothe Says She & Christopher Landon “Broke The Third Movie,” Waiting For Universal, Blumhouse To Fund

As Jessica Rothe grows in her “scream queen” cinematic career, the Happy Death Day star is ready to return to her horror roots.

While discussing her new Joshua Giuliano slasher River at Deadline’s TIFF Studio, the actress revealed she and Happy Death Day franchise writer/director Christopher Landon “broke the third movie” and just need funding.

“So, Chris Landon and I have actually broken the whole story, which was really fun,” she said. “We went to an undisclosed location—a Le Pain Quotidien in between our houses—and sat there for hours and broke the third movie. And now, we’re just waiting for Universal and Blumhouse to [give us] just a little money. … This is a Deadline exclusive. You heard it here first.”

In Happy Death Day (2017), penned by Scott Lobdell and directed by Landon, self-centered college student Tree Gelbman (Rothe) is murdered on her birthday, only to wake up again at the beginning of the day. As the nightmare keeps repeating itself, she has to uncover her killer’s identity in order to stop the cycle.

The 2019 sequel Happy Death Day 2U, written and directed by Landon, expands on the sci-fi element as she finds herself in a parallel universe as a result of her friend’s time-travel experiments.

Now with her role as Carla in Giuliano’s River, Rothe brings fans a much darker slasher, co-starring Jane Levy, Max Mattern and Dane DiLiegro.