There’s no stopping Death, as the next instalment of Final Destination has found its director. Instead of Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, who steered Bloodlines to the highest-grossing film in the franchise, it will welcome Belgian filmmaker Michiel Blanchart in what would be his English-language debut.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, an offer isn’t on the table just yet, but if it goes through, he’s set to join scriptwriter Lori Evans Taylor on the project. The scribe previously worked on Bloodlines alongside Gary Busick, with franchise producer Craig Perry, series veteran Sheila Hanahan Taylor, Jon Watts, Dianne McGunigle, and Toby Emmerich returning as producers. Warren Zide is executive producing.
No other details, including story specifics, a release date, and cast members, are known about Final Destination 7 (not the official name), but news of the follow-up hardly comes as a surprise. Bloodlines secured the best opening weekend in the series to date with a domestic debut of US$51 million at the box office, and came in as the third-biggest horror title for New Line at the end of its theatrical run.
The film restored the 25-year-old franchise, which was originally written for the X-Files TV series, to its former glory. While each entry follows a different self-contained story, the overarching plot involves a small group of people who escape impending death after one visionary individual has a sudden premonition and warns them about a major disaster that is about to occur. After avoiding their foretold deaths, the survivors are later killed one by one in bizarre accidents caused by an unseen force, described as Death itself, setting off a chain of events.
As for Blanchart, his Oscar-nominated short film, You’re Dead, Hélène (T’es morte, Hélène), will be getting an English-language adaptation at Tri-Star with Sam Raimi producing. The filmmaker’s feature debut, the 2024 action crime thriller Night Call (Le nuit se traine), won four awards at this year’s Magritte Awards, the Belgian version of the Academy Awards: best film, best first feature film, best screenplay, and best director.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
