With the Spider-Man: Home franchise, Jon Watts has proven that he has what it takes to spearhead a hit teenage-fronted series of films. His latest, Spider-Man: No Way Home, has already grossed $1.625 billion worldwide even without opening in the lucrative China market. Now, Watts has signed on to reboot the Final Destination franchise.
Watts has written the story for a new film which is being turned into a screenplay by Lori Evans Taylor (Wicked Wicked Games) and Guy Busick (the new Scream). He will produce but not direct. Joining him is his wife and producing partner, Dianne McGunigle, along with longtime Final Destination producers Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor.
In a statement, Watts declared:
“Both Dianne and I have been massive fans of ‘Final Destination’ from the very beginning. So to be able to have a hand in crafting a new story with the original team and New Line is going to be both fun and exciting.”
Perry added:
“Jon and Dianne’s passion for the series is only matched by how much fun they are to work with. Sheila and I couldn’t be more excited to have their creative energy driving this latest installment in the ‘Final Destination’ franchise with New Line. With Guy and Lori’s inspired execution of Jon’s original idea, we have a movie that audiences are gonna love.”
Along with Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, Final Destination was part of a wave of successful teen horror flicks that helped revitalize the genre. The first film was directed by James Wong and starred hot stars like Devon Sawa (Casper), Ali Larter (Heroes), Kerr Smith (Dawson’sCreek), Brendan Fehr (Roswell), and Seann William Scott (American Pie), as well as horror icon Tony Todd (Candyman). The first film made $112.9 million on a budget of $23M.
The first Final Destination spawned four sequels. All followed a similar formula of a group of teens narrowly avoiding a fatal catastrophe, only to find that once they cheated death, they would be picked off one by one by lavish and gory accidents. Combined, the Final Destination franchise has generated $657M.
Jon Watts is not directing this new take on Final Destination. His next helming gig is the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s take on the Fantastic Four.
Are you excited that Watts is working on a new take on Final Destination?
