November 2, 2004... Buoyed by SAW's impressive $18.3 million dollar opening weekend, Lions Gate Films has announced the immediate development of SAW 2. The sequel is being targeted for a Halloween 2005 release date.
The news of the SAW sequel was announced yesterday by Peter Block, Lions Gate Films President of Acquisitions, Television and Co-Productions and Twisted Pictures Mark Burg, Oren Koules and Gregg Hoffman.
"We were confident going into this weekend as the only new horror release that we would hit our target audience of genre fans, but this has exceeded all our expectations," said Tom Ortenberg, President of Lions Gate Films Releasing. "With SAW James Wan and Leigh Whannell have tapped into filmgoers' most base fears and have created something that people immediately feel they need to talk about with others, and see again to catch clues they may have missed the first time," he added.
"We are thrilled about the strong opening weekend of SAW. Lions Gate's marketing and distribution team has done a phenomenal job and we're very excited to be partnering with them again on SAW 2," said producers Burg, Koules and Hoffman in a company issued press release.
What remains unknown is whether SAW's creative team of director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell will return to work on the sequel. Nothing about either man's involvement was mentioned in the Lions Gate release.
[Lions Gate Films.]
March 23, 2005... Darren Lynn Bousman has been hired by Twisted Pictures and Lions Gate Films to direct "Saw 2." Bousman wrote the script for "Saw 2," which he developed with Leigh Whannel, writer and co-star of the original pic, and James Wan, the original director.
Principal photography is set to begin May 2 in Toronto and the plan is to have the film ready for a Halloween release. [Lions Gate Films.]
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March 1, 2005... FilmEngine & New Line have approved a pitch for the sequel to "The Butterfly Effect." John Leonetti will direct the film which will be written by Michael Weiss. Ashton Kutcher is not expected to return.
The sequel will follow a new character who finds he can travel through time. As he changes past events, though, they have unexpected consequences in the present. The film's producers hope to start shooting by this fall. [Variety.]
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March 22, 2005... 20th Century Fox and Marvel Entertainment have hired British filmmaker Matthew Vaughn to direct X-MEN 3. Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are already on board to reprise their roles. Fox is still in negotiations with Halle Berry though.
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HALO:
February, 2005... Microsoft has hired Alex Garland to adapt their highly successful videogame into script. Once the screenplay is done it will be shopped to studios as an all in one package: script & rights. Peter Schlessel will serve as a producer on the project.
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March 14, 2005... Oscar winner Peter Jackson told the BBC News that he is definitely interested in making THE HOBBIT into a film. He explained though that, "I think it's gonna be a lot of lawyers sitting in a room trying to thrash out a deal before it will ever happen."