Director Darren Lynn Bousman is hoping that SAW fans are ready to play a game much sooner than anticipated.
It's been announced that Bousman and Chris Rock's SAW reboot will now open in theaters on May 15, 2020, five months before the film's original release date of October 23, 2020. News of the switch comes shortly after John Carpenter and Lionsgate announced that HALLOWEEN KILLS, a sequel to David Gordon Green's HALLOWEEN, is set to slash at the box office on October 16, 2020. While the release for HALLOWEEN KILLS is still over a year away, it's to be believed that Lionsgate wants Bousman's SAW out in front of the sequel as a way of getting fans into the Halloween spirit. After all, what better way to ring in the best holiday of the year than with another fright-filled feature based on a beloved horror property?
Helmed by Bousman (SAW II-IV, MOTHER'S DAY) and based off a story by Chris Rock with Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg adapting, the reboot involves Rock playing a police detective investigating a series of gruesome crimes. Meanwhile, Samuel L. Jackson will play Rock's father. Also set to join the cast is Max Minghella (THE SOCIAL NETWORK), who will portray William Schenk, Rock's partner, and Marisol Nichols (The CW's RIVERDALE), who is set to play Capt. Angie Garza, Rock's commanding officer and boss.
Bousman and Rock's SAW reboot is currently in production, though we have yet to hear if SAW alum Tobin Bell will return as Jigsaw for the reimagining.
It's been a long time since I've given any significant though to the SAW franchise, though I must admit that the team announced for this project has me very intrigued. It should be interesting to see how Rock and company innovate on the SAW formula, which by the end of its original run of sequels had grown quite stale. That being said, I am all for some new blood being pumped into the franchise, and am eagerly awaiting the day when Jigsaw makes his triumphant and terrorizing return to theaters.