Is it possible The Purge franchise director James DeMonaco is looking to make a sixth movie for the franchise starring Frank Grillo? It sure sounds like it based on the comments Grillo, who starred in The Purge: Anarchy and The Purge: Election Year, told Collider in a recent extended interview for No Man’s Land with our own Steve Weintraub. A new Purge movie, The Forever Purge, is currently set for release this July and previous reports indicated it would be the final movie in the franchise. But Grillo‘s comments to Collider hint at the possibility that DeMonaco has at least one more great Purge idea worth committing to film.
Before Grillo opened up about possibly doing a sixth Purge movie with DeMonaco, he discussed another movie he worked on with the director, Once Upon a Time in Staten Island. Grillo began by teasing how this outing with DeMonaco is unlike anything the pair have done in the past: “I did two Purge movies with him and then Once Upon a Time in Staten Island, which is a complete, 180-degree departure from [The Purge movies]. It’s a really amazing film. It’s another film that got caught up with COVID. I can’t wait for people to see this movie.”
He continued, explaining that Once Upon a Time in Staten Island is a very personal movie for DeMonaco.
“I think part of it is [autobiographical]. It’s a family drama surrounded by this idea of Staten Island, where he still lives, and what the ‘Rocky’ movies represented in the ’80s to all the people on Staten Island, the Italian- and Irish-Americans. But what’s inside of it is this broken little family that goes on this journey and each one of them has this revelatory change by the end of the film in growth. Naomi Watts — this is now my third movie with her — she’s so amazing. To me, she’s the best actress that I’ve ever worked with. Bobby Cannavale is great. People will understand just how talented [DeMonaco] really is.”
And before getting off the subject of working with DeMonaco, Grillo, unprompted, brought up the possibility of another Purge movie. Grillo kicked the discussion off by revealing that, “We are talking, [DeMonaco] and I, another Purge movie,” and went on to explain the genesis of the possible Purge reunion: “He reached out to me not too long ago and Sébastian [K. Lemercier], the producer, and they’re like, ‘What do you think?’ and I’m like, ‘What do you think?’ and they’re like, ‘We talked to Universal and we’ll see Leo Barnes in the [next] Purge if we can come up with something great.’ I said, ‘I’m in. I’ll do it in a heartbeat.'”
Grillo also shared his thoughts about the Purge franchise’s enduring popularity, speaking as someone who has worked closely with DeMonaco on two of the sequels.
“Oh, [DeMonaco] hit the button. He connected to the zeitgeist. ‘What would you do if you could get away with anything for 12 hours?’, ‘What would you do with a million dollars?’ It’s one of those scenarios that everyone thinks about. ‘Well if I had a million dollars I could…,’ ‘Well if I could kill this guy and get away with it, I would…’ And so everybody can relate to it. It’s hyperrealism, the way he cuts and the way he shoots it. It’s almost cartoonish. They’re fun movies. I think that ‘The Purge: Anarchy’ is one of the coolest B-movies that I’ve seen in a long time. Forbes magazine wrote a great article about the importance of the ‘Purge’ franchise and how it relates to what we’re going through in the world. Not in our country — the world. I think [the movies are] an important thing, it’s an important franchise. In a minute I would do another one.”
via Collider