Although I grew up on '80s slashers, I was also born in the '80s, so I didn't get to see the majority of the slashers I love during their first run theatrical releases. Franchises were pumping out sequels on a yearly basis back then, and if I had been a moviegoer during a decade in which the FRIDAY THE 13TH series only missed releasing a sequel in two out ten years (1983 and 1988), I would have been in Fanboy Heaven.
Instead, I was a moviegoer in a time when the annual sequels were coming from the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and SAW franchises, and compared to my beloved slashers I found these new franchises to be very underwhelming and disappointing. I only saw the first two PARANORMAL ACTIVITY movies in the theatre, and there are at least two I still haven't seen at all. I stopped going to SAW movies after part 3 and stopped watching them completely after part 5. I still haven't seen SAW VI or SAW: THE FINAL CHAPTER.
Like sequel factory FRIDAY THE 13TH before it, the SAW series is now looking to continue on past its FINAL CHAPTER. As we learned back in February, Lionsgate has been developing a new installment called SAW: LEGACY, with SORORITY ROW / PIRANHA 3D screenwriters Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger crafting the secrecy-shrouded story. It's been five months of silence since that report, but now a bit more information has been revealed – not through an official announcement, but on an International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees union website.
IATSE 873 is based in Toronto, and their website lists the productions that are currently filming or are soon to film in the area. Listed among other genre productions like the 12 Monkeys TV show, American Gods, Niels Arden Oplev's FLATLINERS remake, and Andy Muschietti's IT adaptation, there is SAW: LEGACY.
According to this listing, SAW series producers Dan Heffner and Oren Koules are returning to produce this eighth film in the series. They're joined on the project by Kym Crepin as production manager, Anne Paynter as production coordinator, and Tony Cowley as production designer.
Information on some major positions (like who will be directing the film) are still unavailable, but filming is apparently scheduled to occur in Toronto from September 12, 2016 to October 21, 2016.
This is a later shooting schedule than the SAW films tended to have. The would usually shoot early in the year for a Halloween release. With SAW: LEGACY wrapping in October, will Lionsgate wait a full year and release it for Halloween 2017, or will it reach theatres in an earlier month than its predecessors?
To find out, we can only wait and see.
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