Last year The Last Exorcism, on a $1.6 million dollar budget, managed to gross over $62 million worldwide. That amount of profit is nothing to scoff at, and instead of just being happy their found footage horror movie ended up being a hit, Strike Entertainment is pushing forward with a sequel. Heat Vision reports that Damien Chazelle, who burst onto the scene in 2009 with the indie Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (which is on Netflix Instant by the way), has been hired by Strike to write the next Last Exorcism, which if you think about it negates the first’s storyline (an exorcist brings along a camera crew to tape his final act). Studio Canal has agreed to finance the sequel, which starts production this fall. Apparently the script won’t take too long to write.
Along with that, Chazelle has also sold a spec script called Grand Piano to producer Adrian Guerra, who produced last year’s thriller Buried which starred Ryan Reynolds. Guerra has tapped Spanish director Euginio Mira to direct the project, which is an Alfred Hitchock-style thriller about a piano player. Chazelle’s other spec, The Claim, was on the 2010 Black List and ended up being purchased back in October by Route One Films. That’s also a thriller focusing on a single father looking for his kidnapped daughter while also facing a claim by another couple who claim his daughter is actually theirs.
Do you want a second Last Exorcism? For those who’ve seen Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, is Chazelle worth the money people are paying him?