CHRONICLE was a surprisingly good entry into the found footage and superhero genres. When word came down that director Josh Trank and screenwriter Max Landis were hitting a wall with the proposed sequel, I was disappointed. After the success of the first movie at the box office, a sequel seemed like a lock, but it sounded like the studio did not like Landis’ script. Well now Landis is saying that is simply not true.
During an interview with IGN, Landis refutes his father, John Landis, who claimed the studio wanted a copy of the original film:
“CHRONICLE 2 is in an interesting place right now. It’s moving along”, Landis Jr explained. “There was this whole announcement that they wanted to just do the same thing again because my father said that. My father is not involved in CHRONICLE 2. He doesn’t know the process. It was not his place to say that.
“The truth is when you have a movie that was as successful as CHRONICLE was, it’s not as quick of a process. There are a lot more voices coming in and saying ‘This is what the sequel should be’ because there’s a bigger expectation and a bigger fear of failure. And that’s really what’s going on with CHRONICLE 2.”
That all makes sense, plus director Josh Trank is in the midst of the FANTASTIC FOUR reboot and Landis has other films he is working on. CHRONICLE 2 seems to be that rare studio sequel where they actually care that the screenwriter and director want to create something good instead of churning out another one right away. CHRONICLE is low budgeted in terms of superhero movies go, so it isn’t causing a major profit loss to wait on it.
Landis also shed some light on what to expect from CHRONICLE 2 in terms of tone and mood:
“The report came out that they didn’t like my script. They liked my script. It’s just a really dark script. The question is more of ‘How do we all compromise to get something we want?’ And that’s an incredibly slow process. Landis concluded by stating that CHRONICLE 2 will definitely happen, and claiming to be “60-75% sure that it will be a pretty damn good movie.”
For those who have seen CHRONICLE, the movie ends in an ambiguous way that could lead to any number of sequels. Whether the found footage style will be retained seems to be unknown at this point, but I would venture to guess they would.