'The Strangers' Sequel Rounding Into Shape

I liked The Strangers quite a bit. It could've been a little tighter there at the end, but the first hour or so was pretty chilling stuff. Because it did phenomenally well for a movie made for $9 million and released during the summer ($50-odd million in the US alone), it's surprising that the proposed sequel has never gone anywhere.

Now, maybe, The Strangers 2 will get moving. Bloody-Disgusting has learned that Relativity Media is "extremely close" to putting the sequel into production. Casting is expected to begin fairly soon, with Liv Tyler already confirmed to return. "We're not sure what the script has evolved into," writes Bloody-Disgusting, "but the draft we read took The Strangers to an abandoned trailer park." Assuming it's a direct sequel and that Liv Tyler's return isn't for nothing, I'd like to see this turn into a revenge picture. Just me.

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'The Strangers 2' Hires Rookie Director

I guess the ending to The Strangers was both open-ended enough and curious enough to make a sequel a pretty good use of resources. I thought it was an especially tense affair, particularly when the Merle Haggard record was playing. Audience responded last summer, and talk of a second movie soon followed.

Rama's Screen relates a story in the trades that Laurent Briet has been brought in to direct part two. He's fairly new to all this, though he does have music video experience. There are examples of successes and failures on both sides of that transition, and David Fincher is probably the gold standard; remember when he was nominated for Best Director three times in the same year (Janie's Got a Gun, End of the Innocence, and Vogue)?

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Win 'The Strangers' on DVD from The Big Picture

Universal Studios Home Entertainment and The Big Picture are giving you a chance to win one hell of a horror movie, The Strangers, available now on DVD.We've got the Unrated version, which includes a few deleted scenes that help the DVD make the claim that it has "2 movies in 1."The Strangers is one of the most profitable movies of 2008, made for a very small budget and making over $50 million in the U.S. this summer. In worldwide dollars, it's made seven or eight times its budget, which is terrific. And you know it made its money because audiences enjoyed it. It started off with a solid opening weekend and kept performing even though it was going up against some of the biggest competition all summer, like Iron Man and Indiana Jones.So how do you get your hands on this little item? Simple: Just answer our Ridiculously Easy Movie Trivia and you're in the running. We'll draw winners at random this weekend, notify you if you've won and get the DVD in the mail pronto. All we ask is that you include your mailing address with your entry.Here's the question: What country artist and song are heard on the record player in one of the most chilling moments of The Strangers?OK, I'll admit that's not ridiculously easy. But if you've seen the movie, you know the scene, so just figure out the song and artist and you're golden. E-mail your votes to us by Friday, October 31st at 10pm Pacific for your chance to win The Strangers on DVD. And include the mailing address or you'll be automatically bounced.

Universal Selling off Rogue Pictures

Just because people are still going to the movies in or near record numbers, that doesn't mean the people making those movies are safe. Just this year, we've seen the neutering of New Line, which has been gutted and repurposed within the smoking monolith of Time-Warner, and we've seen that same conglomerate do away with Picturehouse and Warner Independent, two indie darlings that otherwise had very promising futures.

And now, Variety's Anne Thompson reports that Universal will likely sell off Rogue Pictures to Relativity Media for $150 million. However, I don't think this is economic panic but incredibly shrewd business sense.Rogue began as an off-shoot of another successful Universal boutique, Focus Features, and in the past few years has given American audiences Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, plus horror flicks like Seed of Chucky and The Hitcher. The move comes months after Rogue's biggest hit, The Strangers, one of the most profitable movies of the entire summer, which is out on DVD today, ironically enough.The new arrangement would give Relativity control of the catalog, four 2009 flicks, and a stack of movies in development. Universal would retain distribution rights through 2013, kicking in an estimated 10% in a distribution fee.

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Even 'Stranger': Horror Hit Gets a Sequel

If you skipped it a few months ago, you really missed one of the better surprises of the summer in The Strangers. It's not a great film, but it's about 80% of a good horror flick, maybe 82%. That's significantly better than most blood curdling efforts these days.

Audiences responded, making The Strangers one of the year's most profitable releases ($52 million domestic vs. a $9 million budget). And now, somewhat predictably, we'll get a sequel.

Bloody Disgusting said it was probably going to happen in the weeks following the films instant success, and now it's been confirmed that Rogue Pictures wants writer-director Bryan Bertino to craft a new script, although whether or not he returns to direct is up in the air. "Several of the original villains" and Liv Tyler are expected to return. Hm...I'm not sure how that would work. Are we talking a prequel? Surely not. But would that mean it's a sequel? Surely...not?

I'm very confused by what this is going to look like, and I know how easy it is to roll your eyes at a sequel to a successful movie. I think the real challenge here is coming up with other ways of making an unoriginal concept pretty damn thrilling without copying the first Strangers. I'd also recommend avoiding the bloodshed, because Bertino's best touches were creepy rather than gory.

Production on the sequel is expect to begin early next year, and unlike the first film, I don't think the sequel will sit on a shelf for 18 months.