Wasting no time after the unexpectedly strong opening weekend of SAW, Lions Gate and Twisted Pictures have already announced they are partnering on a sequel to be released for Halloween ’05. Speaking to the $18.3 million SAW brought in over the weekend, Tom Ortenberg, President of Lion’s Gate Films Releasing said, “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.” No word on if the criminally underused Criminologist played by Dina Meyer (right) will return. Actually, I’m not even going to say if that’s possible, since those who haven’t seen SAW yet should have nothing spoiled for them – at least nothing that hasn’t already been spoiled by the media spotlight it’s received.
I have to say that I’m typically a bit leery of sequels for fresh, strong, horror cuts like this, but since the original was shot on a limited budget with obstacles galore, it should be quite a ride to see what writer Leigh Whannell and Director James Wan pull off with a bigger pocketbook and freer hand. Wan speaks to some of the on set difficulties in an interview over at SuicideGirls.com:
People compare it to Se7en and stuff like that. So they go in expecting the next fucking Se7en masterpiece that’s slick on every level. When I was shooting it I knew exactly the things I wasn’t getting and it was hard because there was nothing I could do about it. I was told that if I didn’t get some things right in the first take we had to move on. David Fincher could have gotten 30 or 40 takes to get his shots right and I’ll be lucky if I could get two takes with Cary or Danny. On a really good day I’d be happy to get three takes. That’s just not fair. I was even filming the rehearsals. But the thing is you can’t tell people stuff like that. You can’t put a disclaimer on the poster saying we only had 18 days to shoot the film. I see all the mistakes but I can’t do anything about it.
Sure there’s something to be said for the creativity that comes out of difficult circumstances, and obviously Wan was able to create one kick-ass monster of a flick, but in general, I always like to see what a director can do when he’s GOT the support, financing and time to shoot the full vision in his head. I’m guessing that expectations, not resources, will be the demon facing these talented Australians for SAW 2.
So go ahead and mark your calendars. I for one can’t wait to see what nasty treats they serve up next Halloween.
Thanks to Jed “Mr. Movie” Hatton for the heads up.
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