WWE Studios Boss Michael Luisi Discusses New Collaboration with Gene Simmons

– Entertainment Weekly recently interviewed WWE Studios boss Michael Luisi, who discussed the company’s new deal with Gene Simmons to form a horror movie label Erebus. Below are some highlights.

His thoughts on WrestleMania 31: “Well, it’s WrestleMania weekend, which is definitely the Superbowl, if you’re a WWE fan. It’s our 31st installment. And as I’m speaking to you know, I’m actually looking out the window of my hotel room in San Jose and I can see just massive amounts of WWE fans who are walking around the city.”

On WWE’s new horror movie production label Erebus with Gene Simmons: “We met through a mutual business acquaintance and we sat down together at his home in Bel Air and we hit it off instantly. I discovered very quickly that he has an encyclopedic knowledge of movies. We started talking about our favorite movies, and our favorite types of movies, and we both realized that we loved great horror films. And now we’re moving forward on our first two pictures, so it’s very exciting.”

On WWE Studios’ other projects: “Sure. We’ve got a movie that’s in post-production now called Killing Hasselhoff, which is a very funny and irreverent, R-rated comedy. It stars Ken Jeong from Community and David Hasselhoff, playing himself. Ken’s character is a guy who has participated since he was a young man in a celebrity death pool with all of his best friends and he gets into some financial trouble. His pick is David Hasselhoff and he decides that the only way he’s going to get out of those financial straits is by actually figuring out a way to kill Hasselhoff. And then it becomes a very comical journey as Ken’s character attempts to do something horrible but in a very funny and comedic way. There’s lots of recognizable faces in there: Jon Lovitz, Will Sasso, Jim Jefferies. And most importantly—to WWE fans—Hulk Hogan is in the movie as well. So, that’s a fun one for us. We’ve also got a movie, with Jason Blum and Blumhouse, called Incarnate. That’s a a supernatural thriller starring Aaron Eckhart, and we have a Superstar doing a cameo in that named Mark Henry. That’s directed by Brad Peyton, who among other things, did the upcoming disaster film San Andreas, that Dwayne Johnson is the lead in.”