Movies
‘Quarantine: The Loners’ Is Less ‘Quarantine’, More ‘Hunger Games’
With The Hunger Games pulling in $152 Million domestic over the weekend, the third highest opening weekend of all time, this news shouldn’t come as a surprise to much of anybody. Black Forest has picked up the rights to Quarantine: The Loners, the film version of a young adult book by Lex Thomas (which, interestingly, is combo-pack pseudonym for authors Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies, who will also be writing the screenplay).
Per Variety the book is, “a cross between ‘The Warriors’ and ‘Lord of the Flies’, an action-thriller concerns the outbreak of a virus that is deadly to anyone after puberty. A typical American high school becomes a battleground after the military quarantines more than a thousand teens, who subsequently form violent gangs based on previously established social cliques. Instead of battling for popularity, the students must fight for survival. Protags are two brothers whose relationship is tested when a young girl threatens to come between them.”
Black Forest founding partners Mark Morgan (Twilight Saga), Kami Garcia (Beautiful Creatures), E. Thompson and Brett Hudson will produce.
It’s now been seven years since the release of Blumhouse’s Ma starring Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, with talks of a sequel dating back to last year. Last we heard, Emmy-winner Ashley Nicole Black (“Shrinking,” “Ted Lasso”) would be writing the screenplay for Ma 2, and Octavia Spencer provides an update in a new chat with Entertainment Tonight.
“We are working hard on getting a great script out. Blumhouse is the best at what they do. It’s going to be chock-full of surprises,” Octavia Spencer tells the outlet in a fresh update.
“Ma has proven to be a social phenomenon since its release in 2019, with fans eagerly embracing the film and Octavia’s iconic performance as Ma. Ma likes to say ‘Don’t make me drink alone,’ so we’re thrilled Octavia will join us again for a second round,” Blumhouse Founder/CEO Jason Blum had teased when the sequel was originally announced last Summer.
Spencer plays Sue Ann in Ma, a loner who keeps to herself in her quiet Ohio town. One day, she is asked by Maggie, a new teenager in town, to buy some booze for her and her friends, and Sue Ann sees the chance to make some unsuspecting, if younger, friends of her own.
While no director has been announced as of yet, Tate Taylor helmed the 2019 original from a script by Scotty Landes. Taylor previously detailed that Sue Ann’s fate was intentionally ambiguous, so the door was open for a return in a possible sequel. That Ma earned more than $60 million at the box office meant a sequel was practically inevitable. It also doesn’t hurt that the character popped on social media, becoming something of a viral meme sensation.
Stay tuned for more on Ma 2 as we learn it.