‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ Sequel to Reunite Original Cast

In horror motion pictures, famously, nearly nobody is ever actually lifeless. And in our present, not-yet-crested wave of pop cultural nostalgia, no outdated leisure property is deemed unworthy of an excavation or potential reboot.

These two separate truths meet in a hearty high-five with in the present day’s news, in response to Deadline, {that a} “legacy-quel” is within the works for the 1997 teen slasher flick ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer,’ with unique stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. already in talks to return.

Looking to resume their IP management, Sony Pictures, which produced the primary movie, just lately took a gathering with director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and actress-turned-screenwriter Leah McKendrick (‘Deviant Love,’ ‘M.F.A.’), and favored what they heard sufficient to provide a inexperienced gentle to their pitch. Original sequence producer Neal H. Moritz can also be doubtlessly rejoining the mission.

The news comes, in fact, after Paramount efficiently rebooted the ‘Scream’ franchise final 12 months, to the tune of $140 million in theatrical receipts, with a film that blended outdated, acquainted franchise faces and new characters.

It additionally follows a earlier stab at franchise rejuvenation which stalled out. A bit of over eight years in the past, approaching the heels of the buzzy, well-regarded low-budget horror film ‘Oculus,’ Sony dedicated to a ‘Summer’ reboot from writer-director Mike Flanagan, who would go on to make ’Before I Wake’ and ‘Doctor Sleep.’ It was placed on their launch calendar for 2016, however by no means began taking pictures, and was finally cancelled.

Based on the bestselling, crimson herring-heavy 1973 younger grownup suspense novel by Lois Duncan, the unique film centered round 4 younger mates, certain collectively by a tragic accident and its cover-up, who’re reunited after they obtain a threatening observe and subsequently discover themselves being stalked by hook-wielding maniac who can also be closely into Gorton’s Fisherman cosplay. A $125 million field workplace hit, the 1997 film helped launch the large display screen careers of Hewitt, Prinze, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Ryan Phillippe.

With final 12 months’s ‘Scream’ already having taken a little bit of the steam out of legacy sequels, along with having some enjoyable on the expense of so-called elevated horror, it stays to be seen what kind and route a brand new ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ will take.

While 1996’s ‘Scream’ and the unique ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ shared a screenwriter in Kevin Williamson, the previous leaned right into a post-modern, self-referential tone, whereas the latter embraced rather more standard style plotting.

The unique ‘Summer’ was adopted by two sequels, 1998’s ’I Still Know What You Did Last Summer,’ which additionally featured Hewitt and Prinze, and 2006’s extra supernaturally-oriented ‘I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer,’ which featured a wholly new solid.

Presumably the brand new film won’t function a plot which extensively drills down right into a strenuous and grammatically exacting unpacking of simply which summer season’s occasions are literally now identified, and thus topic to lethal score-settling, however tiresome pedants in every single place would certainly have fun such a plot. Rather, one can count on a considerably extra streamlined story of unearthed secrets and techniques and murderous revenge, leaning into the adage that the previous isn’t actually lifeless.

A co-screenwriter on ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ and consulting producer on ‘Hawkeye,’ Robinson made her function directorial debut with 2019’s romantic comedy ‘Someone Great,’ and moreover drew optimistic notices for ‘Do Revenge,’ a excessive school-set black comedy loosely impressed by Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Strangers on a Train.’ Her newest effort, it appears, might contain a bit extra blood.