Given Hollywood's penchant for creating sequels for every god damn movie that makes half a cent, using the word "last" or "final" in your title is a great way to stick yourself in a corner. Sure, Final Destination was able to get away with it for a while (one can argue that it's because the title is a pun), but when they named the fourth installment THE Final Destination and then made a fifth movie they looked foolish. Case in point, THR is reporting that a sequel to last year's The Last Exorcism is now in the works. I can hear audiences laughing at the title Last Exorcism 2 already.
According to the trade, Lionsgate has hired Damien Chazelle to script a follow-up to Daniel Stamm's 2010 exorcism film, which surprised analysts when it made $20.3 million in its opening weekend and placed a close second to Takers. Filmed in documentary fashion with a no-name cast, the movie was made for only $1.8 million and ended up grossing nearly $70 million worldwide. In the film an Evangelical preacher (Patrick Fabian) brings a camera crew with him on his last exorcism as a means of exposing it all as a hoax. In addition to producing last year's Sundance hit Buried with Ryan Reynolds, Chazelle has also written a spec-script called Grand Piano, which has Spanish director Eugenio Mira attached to helm. Financed by Studio Canal, the horror sequel should go into production this fall.
Without giving too much away, I don't think that any of the characters from the first film will be able to come back, so I'm curious as to how Chazelle will approach the project. Will it be a documentary investigating the events of the first film? Will it have a completely separate story that has nothing to do with the first film a la Blair Witch 2: Book of Secrets? When it comes down to it, the title might be the least of his problems.
