ROB ZOMBIE Clears Up Rumors About 'The Munsters' Budget; Blu-ray/DVD Release Announced

Rob Zombie's movie reboot of the classic 1960s sitcom "The Munsters" will be made available on Blu-ray/DVD on September 27. You can also purchase your own digital version that same day. The Blu-ray will include lots of bonuses that won't be available on the version that will come to Netflix the same month, such as over 60 minutes of extra footage with a making-of documentary about the movie's production.

On Wednesday (July 20), Rob took to social media to clear up rumors that the film was originally going to open in theaters, possibly with a simultaneous release on Peacock, and he shot down reports that "The Munsters" had a $40 million budget.

"How the hell did everyone get the idea that The Munsters cost 40 millions dollars?" Rob wrote. "Fuck, I wish I had that kind of budget.

"To put a little perspective on it all if you add up the budgets of Halloween 2, The Lords of Salem, 31, 3 From Hell and The Munsters all together it wouldn't even add up to 30 million.

"Also the movie was never going to theaters or Peacock or Paramount. It was always being made for Netflix which is fine since it is the largest of the streaming services. This was done way before I ever got involved in the project. I have no control or say over this type of stuff. This is a Universal deal. But the internet loves to invent rumors which somehow turns to facts so the fans can get all bend out of shape.

"None of this actually matters but thought you might like the real story."
On Monday, Zombie, whose real name was Robert Cummings before he legally changed it, revealed that his new movie will premiere on Netflix this fall alongside Tim Burton's "The Addams Family" spinoff series "Wednesday".

Zombie's film reboot of "The Munsters" reportedly began filming in May 2021 and will feature Zombie's wife, Sheri Moon Zombie, cast as Lily Munster, and Jeff Daniel Phillips as Herman Munster. The cast will also include Daniel Roebuck co-starring as Grandpa Munster. Richard Brake ("31", "3 From Hell") is playing Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang. Catherine Schell ("Space: 1999", "The Return Of The Pink Panther") is playing "Zoya Krupp the gypsy queen." Dee Wallace, Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson and Jorge Garcia will also star.

Zombie told EW that "The Munsters" is more family-friendly than his previous films.

"Yeah, it's 100 percent in the spirit of the show," he said. "I didn't want it to be different. I wanted to totally retain the vibe that it had in the '60s."

Regarding his choices for the actors in the movie, Rob said: "I wanted to cast people that had worked together a lot. I couldn't risk getting on set in Budapest [Hungary] and going, my leads aren't getting along, they have no chemistry. So that's why I chose the cast I chose. Jeff Daniel Phillips and Sheri Moon Zombie and Daniel Roebuck, they work together a lot and I knew they would just fall right into it."

As for how Petersen ended up playing real estate agent Barbara Carr, Rob said: "We've been friends with Cassandra for I don't even know how long. She was at our wedding, she was at Sheri's shower. We've been friends with her for at least 25 years. So that was another good person that could come in and fit right in, totally familiar."

"The Munsters" will be released by Universal 1440 Entertainment, a production arm of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group.

The original "The Munsters" aired on CBS for two seasons from September 1964 to May 1966.

Zombie, who is a massive "Munsters" fan, joined Butch Patrick for a commentary track for the film "Munster, Go Home!", which was released on Blu-ray by Scream Factory in 2020.

A musician, filmmaker, and author, Rob Zombie has directed eight feature films, including 2019's "3 From Hell", 2016's "31" and 2012's "The Lords Of Salem". His other directing credits include the cult favorite "House Of 1000 Corpses" and its companion, "The Devil's Rejects", along with the 2007 re-imagining of John Carpenter's "Halloween", plus its sequel, "Halloween 2". Zombie also developed his own comic book series into an R-rated animated feature, "The Haunted World Of El Superbeasto".

Zombie admitted to The Pulse Of Radio a while back that it's been tough for him to break out of the horror genre. "The movies I've made up to this point have been pretty dark and pretty much in that world because those are the opportunities that were presented," he explained. "You know, the people that put up the money for these things know that if I stick to that sort of thing, it's easily more profitable. So it's a much bigger challenge to break out of it."

Zombie released his seventh studio album, "The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy", in March 2021 via Nuclear Blast. The LP marked his first new album in nearly five years.

Rob Zombie photo credit: Travis Shinn