Gareth Edwards’ 2010 indie film, Monsters, was by far one of the best feature debuts in recent memory. The writer-director brought us a fantastic vision of an alien-invaded world in the BAFTA-nominated sci-fi rarely, if ever, seen on screen.
Vertigo Films announced last year their intentions to develop a sequel, and word now comes that Misfits director, Tom Green, is due to make his feature debut with the sequel, now titled, Monsters: Dark Continent.
Edwards himself has since boarded the Godzilla remake for Legendary Pictures, which has David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight Rises) rewriting the script, and announced last summer that he’s also been developing an as-yet-untitled film that he’ll both write and direct, describing it as,
“an epic human story set in a futuristic world without humanity.”
Edwards will be staying on as producer, but the prospect of having Green behind the camera for the second time around sounds very intriguing.
Green made his television debut with the very first episode of Misfits back in 2009, and directing a handful more since then, bringing a great vision himself to one of the best UK programmes on television at the moment.
Brent Bonacorso and Jesse Atlas were initially attached to direct the project when it was first announced, but Screen Daily, via The Playlist, report that Green has since come on board in their place.
Penning the script is Jay Basu, co-writer of the recent UK film, Fast Girls, which debuted at the box office at the weekend.
As yet, there’s no word on when we can expect the film to go into production, but the changing line-up behind the camera sounds very promising, and suggests Vertigo are very much backing the sequel.
Edwards’ first film took more than $4m. at the box office from a shoestring budget, with the production essentially consisting of Edwards, his leading cast – Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able – and a crew of less than half a dozen people, which is part of the reason why the film is so very impressive.
When the sequel was first announced, it was said that the story would revolve around a teacher who goes in search of his long-lost brother, with the creatures due to get a lot more screen time than the original. Whether or not that still stands remains to be seen, but you can be sure that my ticket money is absolutely guaranteed for whenever the film is released. I will be first in line, and hope you’ll be joining me there.
In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the trailer for the excellent original. I can’t recommend enough how much you must see this first film. It’s simply beautiful.
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