EXCLUSIVE: After the original’s box office success and critical acclaim, Lionsgate and Amazon Studios are getting the gang back together for a sequel to A Simple Favor. Sources tell Deadline the studios will partner on the sequel with stars Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively set to reprise their roles and Paul Feig returning to direct as well as produce with Laura Fischer. Jessica Sharzer is writing the screenplay.

Feigco Entertainment is set to produce. Sharzer will executive produce. The first film followed a single mother with a parenting vlog who befriends a secretive upper-class woman who has a child at the same elementary school. When Emily goes missing, Stephanie takes it upon herself to investigate.

The pic was a critical and commercial success for Lionsgate, earning more than $97 million at the worldwide box office, achieving Certified Fresh status on Rotten Tomatoes and attracting a strong base that has been hoping for a follow-up after an ending that left things open for a potential sequel.

Meredith Wieck and Scott O’Brien are overseeing the project for Lionsgate.

Lively is set to make her feature directorial debut with Seconds for Searchlight, an adaptation of the graphic novel by Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley. Kendrick most recently starred in the Netflix drama Stowaway and also starred in the first season of HBO Max’s Love Life.

Feig most recently directed the Netflix adaptation of The School for Good and Evil, starring Charlize Theron and Kerry Washington with Feigco producing.

Feig is represented by CAA and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern. Kendrick is represented by Range Media Partners and CAA. Lively is represented by WME, Management 360, and attorney David Weber. Sharzer is represented by UTA, Tobin Babst and Lindsay Perraud at Kaplan/Perrone, and attorney Jonathan Shikora at Lichter Grossman.

Deadline already told you two years ago that A Simple Favor 2 was happening with Paul Feig back in the director’s chair and Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick starring, but today Amazon MGM Studios has made it official that the movie is a go and with the original cast members returning, read Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Joshua Satine, Ian Ho, and Kelly McCormack.

Lionsgate is co-producing the sequel to the 2018 black comedy which minted $97M off a $20M budget. Cameras roll this spring. A streaming release on Prime Video in 240 countries is planned.

In part two, we see the return of Stephanie Smothers (Kendrick) and Emily Nelson (Lively) as they head to the beautiful island of Capri, Italy, for Emily’s extravagant wedding to a rich Italian businessman. Along with the glamorous guests, expect murder and betrayal to RSVP for a wedding with more twists and turns than the road from the Marina Grande to the Capri town square.

The script, which is based on characters by Darcy Bell, was written by Jessica Sharzer, who wrote the first film, with revisions by Laeta Kalogridis and Feig.

Feigco Entertainment’s Feig and Laura Fischer are producing A Simple Favor 2, with Sharzer executive producing.