Producer Sam Raimi and director Nicolas Pesce are looking to revive the THE GRUDGE franchise with a new film that will be reaching theatres in 2020, and today a trailer has arrived online to give us a look at what Pesce has done with this familiar material.
Pesce has said that the new film is
a tapestry of three different stories that interweave and all take place at slightly different times, centered around this one house that’s at the center of this case that this cop is working on."
IGN got the first look at the trailer, and Pesce told the site that what he has tried to do with his THE GRUDGE is collect the entire franchise together in one universe. Whether the films were Japanese or American productions, and even though the 2004 American version of THE GRUDGE was a remake, Pesce sees them as all existing within the same continuity. As part of the endeavor to tie everything together, he even set his story in 2004 so it happens at the same time as the '04 film.
Pesce's THE GRUDGE stars Lin Shaye, John Cho, Demian Bichir, and Andrea Riseborough.
The film is heading toward a January 3, 2020 release date.
If this one is successful, Pesce has ideas that could keep the franchise going for several more sequels:
The coolest thing about The Grudge is the rules of this curse, as set forth by all the movies … nowhere in there does it say that that only happens in Japan. What’s so cool about the nature of the grudge is it can happen anywhere to anyone at any time, and this one Japanese crime isn’t the only crime that’s ever been so bad that it explains a grudge. The grudge is kind of like a virus — it spreads and is contagious. … So much of what we wanted to do with this movie is show that, yes, you know very well what’s been happening in Japan, but what you don’t realize is this is happening in other places too, and it’s not just contained to this one house in Japan. It’s here and it’s here and it’s here, and it’s everywhere. If we were to make more, I would want to do ones that were in Africa and in Europe and in Australia. It’s about showing you that this thing is sprawled much further than we thought, and it’s way bigger and way more scary that way, I think. I don’t want audiences to think that, oh, as long as I stay away from the Nerima district of Tokyo, I will not get grudged. Like, no, no, no, no. You’re getting grudged no matter where you go."
Check out the trailer and see if Pesce's THE GRUDGE looks appealing to you.
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