New Line is moving forward with another Final Destination movie after the record-breaking success of Final Destination: Bloodlines. Lori Evans Taylor, who co-wrote Bloodlines with Guy Busick, has been hired to write the script for the seventh film in the long-running horror series.
Bloodlines, released in May, earned over $286 million worldwide — $138.1 million of that in the U.S. — making it the most successful film in the franchise’s history. The budget is reported to be only around $50M. The movie marked the first new entry since 2011 and served as a partial prequel, starting with an event in 1969 before jumping forward 50 years.
Returning Producers
Franchise producers Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor are back, along with Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts, his wife Dianne McGunigle, and Toby Emmerich. Warren Zide will executive produce. Watts also came up with the Bloodlines story and was involved creatively.
Expanding the Franchise’s Scope
Perry has said that setting Bloodlines partly in the past opens the door for new settings and scenarios in future films. Without continuing characters, each movie can jump to different time periods and situations while keeping the same premise, survivors of a predicted disaster are hunted down by Death.
This flexibility has kept the series popular with audiences since the first Final Destination hit theaters in 2000. To date, the franchise has grossed over $983 million worldwide, making it New Line’s third-biggest horror series behind The Conjuring and It.
Taylor’s Other Projects
Taylor is one of the few women working regularly in horror. She adapted The Edge of Normal, Carla Norton’s serial killer novel, into a film starring Chloë Grace Moretz, which wrapped earlier this year. Her other credits include the psychological thriller Cellar Door and her directorial debut Bed Rest. She also adapted I Am Still Alive for Universal, with Ben Affleck attached to star and produce.
THR first reported on the new movie.
