Death has found a new avatar to bring creative kills to the big screen. New Line Cinema is eyeing Belgian filmmaker Michiel Blanchart to helm the next installment of the Final Destination franchise. A formal offer has reportedly not been made, but he quickly rose to the top of their list of prospective options to take the franchise forward after a heated search for its next steward. He’ll be making his English-language debut with the feature, following in the footsteps of duo Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, who revived the series with their much-acclaimed Final Destination Bloodlines.
New Line has been hellbent on getting a new installment of the death-defying franchise up and running after Bloodlines scored a by far franchise-best haul of $285.3 million globally. Coupled with a Certified Fresh score of 93% from critics and a Verified Hot 87% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, the success spurred an official green light for a sequel from the studio back in August, with writer Lori Evans Taylor confirmed to be returning to pen the screenplay. Much of the same production team will remain on board, though, including longtime franchise steward Craig Perry and regular producer Sheila Hanahan Taylor, alongside Jon Watts and his wife, Dianne McGunigle, and Toby Emmerich.
That Lipovsky and Stein aren’t helming the carnage once again isn’t entirely surprising, especially since they previously told Collider that they felt like they had mostly emptied the idea tank for a Final Destination film. While they felt they could come up with more anxiety-inducing demises and story ideas with the team given time, it didn’t sound like they were in any hurry after making the movie that they thought “demanded to be made.” Blanchart is an intriguing choice to take the reins, considering his relatively short resume, but he’s shown some impressive chops as a filmmaker. He previously helmed the paranormal short You’re Dead, Hélène, which was on the shortlist for Best Live-Action Short Film at the 2023 Academy Awards and is now due for a feature-length rendition with Sam Raimi attached as a producer. He’d follow that up in 2024 with the timely and relentless conspiracy thriller Night Call, earning a fair bit of love on the festival circuit and sweeping the Magritte Awards, the Belgian counterpart to the Oscars.
‘Final Destination’ Will Need a New Story for Its Latest Installment
Expectations will be high for whatever Blanchart brings to the table. The Final Destination franchise appeared to be well and truly buried before Bloodlines came along, showing that, ironically, these films can cheat death. The next installment will have to go in a new direction, however, because nobody made it out of the latest movie alive. Bloodlines followed a family caught in Death’s twisted designs after the grandmother, Iris (Gabrielle Rose/Brec Bassinger), saved an entire high-rise party thanks to a premonition. Despite the granddaughter Stefani’s (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) best efforts to find the one person who could break the cycle, however, the film closes on another devastating cargo accident that ends the bloodline for good. The film showed, however, that there’s still life to be found in this franchise with the right idea.
via Collider