Last week, the rumor emerged that Dimension Films had secretly put a new CHILDREN OF THE CORN sequel into production, just as they had done with HELLRAISER: JUDGMENT (and several years ago CHILDREN OF THE CORN: GENESIS and HELLRAISER: REVELATIONS), in order to retain their rights to the property.
Bloody-Disgusting has now been able to confirm that a sequel in indeed currently in production in the vicinity of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – also the filming location of HELLRAISER: JUDGMENT – and is shooting under the title RUNAWAY.
CHILDREN OF THE CORN: GENESIS writer/director Joel Soisson has written the script for RUNAWAY, crafting a story that
follows a young pregnant woman who escapes a murderous child cult in a small Midwestern town (Gatlin, Nebraska?). She then spends the next decade living anonymously in an attempt to spare her son the horrors that she experienced as a child. She lands in the small Oklahoma town… but something is following her. Now, she must confront this evil or lose her child.
Alexandre Lehmann, a camera operator on several Dimension films over the years, is rumored to be directing (as was Soisson), but B-D's sources continue to tell them that the director is actually John Gulager, with whom Lehmann worked on the FEAST sequels and PIRANHA 3DD. Gulager and Soisson also have a history together, as Soisson produced FEAST and PIRANHA 3DD.
Whether or not Gulager is directing this CHILDREN OF THE CORN film, he was certainly in Oklahoma recently, since he had an acting role in HELLRAISER: JUDGMENT.
The fact that the lead character in RUNAWAY is named Ruth leads B-D to speculate that the film could be a sequel to the 2009 remake, which featured a pregnant character (played by Alexa Nikolas) named Ruth. However, Dimension had no involvement with that remake, so it would be quite odd if they were to acknowledge it, especially since the studio is hoping to get their own CHILDREN OF THE CORN remake off the ground eventually.
Regardless of which previous CORN films it's connected to (if any), a new installment in the franchise is being made. I don't know how many fellow horror fans out there share my enthusiasm for this series, but this is exciting news in my book.
Alexa Nikolas