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‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ Writer Teases Upcoming Sequel; A Slasher for the Social Media Age?

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2 months ago

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As we learned last year, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) is on board to direct the next installment in the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise for Sony, with Leah McKendrick (M.F.A.) on board to write the screenplay. We don’t yet know if the original cast will be back, but the film had been originally announced as a legacy sequel of sorts.

Speaking with Collider this week, writer Leah McKendrick remained pretty tight lipped about her I Know What You Did Last Summer plans, but she did provide some low-key insights.

McKendrick told the outlet, “…no spoilers, but I will say that I think if you’re an OG fan like me and you, I think you’re gonna be happy. I think you’re gonna get it.”

She also teased a social media aspect to the upcoming sequel, something that of course wasn’t present in the original movies because, well, social media didn’t exist at the time.

McKendrick teases, “At its core, I think it really reckons with some big ideas about hero and villain, right and wrong, how your skeletons come back to haunt you. And in the age of the internet and the age where fame is such a revered concept, the creation of TikTok and social media, who is Julie James in a world where there are no secrets anymore?”

“I already feel like I’m saying too much, but I think at its core, if you watch the original… I obviously watched 8 million times while working on it… but it’s fun,” McKendrick continues. “It’s just a popcorn, wild ride. It’s campy at times, Jennifer Love Hewitt is so hot, Freddie Prinze Jr. is so hot. Sarah Michelle [Gellar], Ryan [Phillippe], they’re so gorgeous. It’s like beautiful people behaving badly. You just can’t get enough of it. There’s a lot of that in this film.”

Head over to Collider to read the full interview.

Jim Gillespie directed the original I Know What You Did Last Summer back in 1997, written by Kevin Williamson (Scream) and based on Lois Duncan’s novel. The film spawned sequels in 1998 and 2006. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. only came back for that first sequel.

In the 1997 slasher movie, “Four young friends bound by a tragic accident are reunited when they find themselves being stalked by a hook-wielding maniac in their small seaside town.”

More recently, the franchise returned with Amazon’s short-lived television series.

Lois Duncan's 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' Cuts Deeper Than the 1997 Movie [Buried in a Book]

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Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

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Jessica Rothe Keeps the Hope Alive for Third ‘Happy Death Day’ Movie

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April 26, 2024

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It’s now been five years since the release of sequel Happy Death Day 2U, Christopher Landon’s sequel to the Groundhog Day-style slasher movie from 2017. Both films star Jessica Rothe as final girl Tree Gelbman, and director Christopher Landon had been planning on bringing the character – and the actor – back for a third installment. So… where is it?!

We’ve been talking about a potential Happy Death Day 3 for several years now, with the ball in producer Jason Blum’s court. Happy Death Day 2U scared up $64 million at the worldwide box office, a far cry from the first film’s $125 million. But with a reported production budget of just $9 million, that first sequel was profitable for Blumhouse. So again… where is it?!

Chatting with Screen Geek this week while promoting her new action-thriller Boy Kills World, franchise star Jessica Rothe provided a hopeful update on Happy Death Day 3.

“Well, I can say Chris Landon has the whole thing figured out,” Rothe explains. “We just need to wait for Blumhouse and Universal to get their ducks in a row.

Rothe continues in her comments to Screen Geek, “But my fingers are so crossed. I think Tree [Gelbman] deserves her third and final chapter to bring that incredible character and franchise to a close or a new beginning.”

Back in 2020, Christopher Landon had revealed that the working title for the third installment was Happy Death Day to Us, said to be “different than the other two films.”

In the meantime, Christopher Landon is directing a mysterious thriller titled Drop for Blumhouse and Platinum Dunes, along with a werewolf movie titled Big Bad for Lionsgate.

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