Movies
‘Paranormal’ Producer Talks ‘Amityville,’ ‘Lords of Salem,’ ‘Area 51’ and More
A lengthy interview has appeared over at Shocktillyodrop where they talk with Jason Blum, producer on all Paranormal Activity projects, Insidious, The Lords of Salem, The Bay and many other genre offerings. While he skirts the issue on a few forthcoming releases, below you’ll find the juicy tid-bits.
When asked if Paranormal Activity 3 would be yet another prequel, Blum unsurprisingly gave ZERO info: “Can’t comment on that one! You will just have to see. [laughs]” He also gives no information on potential directors for ABC’s series “The River”.
As for Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem, he explains that it will be 100% a Rob Zombie movie: “He’s going to shoot in the fall. I think it’s fair to say it’s going to feel like a 100% Rob Zombie movie. That’s why I approached him, that’s why I’m lucky to be working with him. We’re encouraging him to do it just like he wants.” As we’ve seen in the past, Zombie flourishes when he’s not being clamped down by the studio.
Blum completely filibusters around what’s going on with Oren Peli’s directorial follow-up to Paranormal Activity. Back in 2009 Peli directed another lower-budgeted cinema verite genre film, Area 51, about a group of kids who end up in the midst of the Nevada landmark. While we already reported on reshoots and additional writing (April), Blum explains why it’s still not in theaters: “ ‘Area 51’ is like ‘Paranormal Activity’. The additional photography for ‘PA’, we went back 50 times. The great thing about doing extra shooting for inexpensive movies is that the cost is low, so we screen and shoot and screen and shoot. Oren and I were pulled away from ‘Area 51’ a lot for the second ‘PA’. Once that came out, we ramped up on ‘Area 51’ again. I anticipate the movie will be mostly done in about three or four months. They can’t set a release date yet until we do all of that.” When asked about a 2012 release he added that “it will depend on the competitive release schedule all the way around. It could be sooner.”
Lastly, he talks a bit about how The Amityville Tapes ended up moving so quickly: “Dan [Farrands] and Casey [La Scala] came to me and said they wanted to do a found footage version of ‘Amityville’ and they had the rights to do it. I knew Bob [Weinstein] had the rights to do it. I said, lets take it to Bob and not fight him but join him – I worked for Bob and Harvey for five years – and we pitched it to Bob and he threw it into production.” I wish it were always that easy!
Movies
’28 Years Later’ – Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Join Long Awaited Sequel
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (Annihilation, Men), the director and writer behind 2002’s hit horror film 28 Days Later, are reteaming for the long-awaited sequel, 28 Years Later. THR reports that the sequel has cast Jodie Comer (Alone in the Dark, “Killing Eve”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter), and Ralph Fiennes (The Menu).
The plan is for Garland to write 28 Years Later and Boyle to direct, with Garland also planning on writing at least one more sequel to the franchise – director Nia DaCosta is currently in talks to helm the second installment.
No word on plot details as of this time, or who Comer, Taylor-Johnson, and Fiennes may play.
28 Days Later received a follow up in 2007 with 28 Weeks Later, which was executive produced by Boyle and Garland but directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Now, the pair hope to launch a new trilogy with 28 Years Later. The plan is for Garland to write all three entries, with Boyle helming the first installment.
Boyle and Garland will also produce alongside original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice, the former head of Fox Searchlight Pictures, the division of one-time studio Twentieth Century Fox that originally backed the British-made movie and its sequel.
The original film starred Cillian Murphy “as a man who wakes up from a coma after a bicycle accident to find England now a desolate, post-apocalyptic collapse, thanks to a virus that turned its victims into raging killers. The man then navigates the landscape, meeting a survivor played by Naomie Harris and a maniacal army major, played by Christopher Eccleston.”
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) is on board as executive producer, though the actor isn’t set to appear in the film…yet.
Talks of a third installment in the franchise have been coming and going for the last several years now – at one point, it was going to be titled 28 Months Later – but it looks like this one is finally getting off the ground here in 2024 thanks to this casting news. Stay tuned for more updates soon!
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