Seantn

Berlinger can claim they fucked up BW2 all he wants. The film is largely his. Big things they changed was that over the opening credits, it was just supposed to be sweeping shots of the woods, no intercutting of the murders happening, and instead of Marilyn Manson playing over the opening credits, he wanted the song "Witchcraft" to be playing by Frank Sinatra.

Then throughout the movie, there wouldn't be any inter cutting of the quick random shots of violence.

That does impact the film negatively by having it in there, but the story was all his own and even without those things in there, the movie would have sucked. The story sucked, the actors were bad, and it just wasn't good. I understand their logic behind hiring Berlinger, but in the end, he didn't deliver a good film. Unfortunately, Artisan took a bad film and made it worse to appeal to the teenage demographic.

tylergfoster

By what logic? I maintain that he must have done something impressive to be more interesting to Peli and crew than someone with any experience in the genre. Seeing as he hasn't made a feature since 2004, the guy obviously hasn't been taking random "for-hire" work gigs or anything while he nurtures a passion project, so I'm not worried that this is going to be that situation, nor do I think the studio actually said "what about Kip Williams?" and proceeded to talk him into it. If neither of those things happened, I'm left with the belief that he came in with an idea, and it really grabbed their attention.

Matthew Chmiel

Since the project is being kept on the DL, do we know if they're even going with a story that Williams could've developed or if they're continuing with what Greutert and others developed prior? As we all saw with Saw VI, a lot of input was directly from Greutert causing the last-minute complete re-write of Saw VII when he was forced to jump back onto the project.

Paramount has less than six months to go from pre-production to release with Paranormal Activity 2. That's not a lot of time, especially if they're just in the beginning stages of pre.

tylergfoster

Well, when I say "idea", it doesn't have to be the entirety of the movie. It could easily be that Williams was a fan of the first and got ahold whatever they have for Paranormal 2, read it, and just had an amazing take on how to execute it.

Matthew Chmiel

Or he could've been the zero hour choice as Paramount needs to start production on this as soon as possible to get to release by Halloween.

This isn't a Saw-like situation where they can do pre-production to release in an eight month period. Lionsgate / Twisted can do that because the film's creative crew has remained almost unchanged since the first and second outing. Even when Hackl or Greutert got promoted to the director's chair in V and VI, the person below them got promoted to their position. The only big change has been with the writing staff when Wan and Whannell left the franchise after III.

With PA2, Paramount has to start from scratch. Lionsgate / Twisted had Saw II in their frame of mind prior to the theatrical release of Saw with production starting on II before the original one hit video. It's been six months since PA's original theatrical release from Paramount, three since it's video release and pre-production is just getting started.

There are horror sequels with rushed production schedules that I can defend because they turned out well (Scream 2), but from Greutert having to leave and them taking over a month to get someone new doesn't scream confidence. Paramount should've known from hiring Greutert that Lionsgate might've had a card up their sleeve, their #2 choice should've been ready to go the moment Greutert got pulled. PA2 isn't going to cost that much (if Paramount is smart), they could've easily signed a non-established horror director to a pay-or-play deal if Greutert didn't work out.

Osiris3657

I'll probably see it, but I'm far more interested in Oren Peli's Area 51 movie

Matthew Chmiel

Isn't that already completed? Why not release that on Halloween if PA2 still has issues getting off the ground?

Actually, what would be a smart idea: release Area 51 at Halloween for the competition against Saw VII and attach a trailer to PA2 on it. Release PA2 in the dumping ground of January and have it make bank.

Damnit. I need to run a studio.

Supermallet

That's a lot of optimism for a movie that will, despite all assurances to the contrary, probably end up being another Blair Witch 2.

Matthew Chmiel

Greutert was a step in the right direction as he almost single-handedly saved the Saw franchise. I say almost because all signs point to VII being the last one due to the unfortunate piss-poor performance of VI.

However, with him gone and Paramount still scrambling to get to the Halloween release date, all signs are pointing PA2 to be DOA.

Supermallet

I've never been impressed by a single Saw film, so getting a guy from that franchise does not constitute a step in the right direction, imo. Paranormal Activity was a decidedly un-Saw-like film. And frankly, any sequel to this very standalone, one time only, lightning in a bottle phenomenon of a film is automatically a step in the wrong direction.

tylergfoster

Lionsgate has signed to be in Saw VII, as well as

It was on the main page of IMDb, so in case you're a Saw fan who would like to try and go in blind, I'd say avoid all horror sites and IMDb for a day or two, but seeing as Lionsgate seems to have announced this news (not to mention the fact that ) might suggest that they just don't think they can keep a lid on it.

stingermck

Its about damn time. Take that PA2!

Matthew Chmiel

I told my girlfriend of the Saw VII casting and was like "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Like most, she gave up after the abominations known as IV and V.

islandclaws

I was hoping they'd do that. I wonder what they offered him?

sauce07

what's the connection between Saw 7 and Paranormal Activity 2?

stingermck

Opening on the same weekend.

sauce07

didn't realize we could do that, can't wait to talk about Sex in the City 2 in the Prince Of Persia thread.

stingermck

Well its deeper than that. I forget the details, and I think its in this thread, but competing Horror films, studios competing over directors, etc etc.

DVD Josh

There are some truths that need to be recognized:

1) PA1 is not as good as the hype surrounding it; and

2) PA2 has zero change of being any good at all.

sauce07

I know the history, the above Saw 7 spoilers should be in a Saw 7 thread, it has nothing to do with PA 2.

glassdragon

Teasers up. It's just a teaser but I'm in the "It's going to be dumb as hell" wagon

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if it doesn't work for you, go Here

Matthew Chmiel

Someone posted this on ONTD:

One of the shots from the trailer:

Now flip the shot upside down:

If this involves children, I'm out. I'll go watch Poltergeist instead.

Obey The D

Did you watch the same trailer as me? It has a shot of a woman standing in the doorway looking like she is half asleep! That image will haunt my dreams for weeks to come.

EdTheRipper

I liked the first one. I'm sure I'll see this one as well.

Pointyskull

I can't tell what the hell I'm supposed to be seeing, despite the red circles.
I am not shitting bricks, people!