Made on a budget of less than $1 million, the mystery thriller Searching (read our review HERE), which played out entirely on computer and smartphone screens, earned over $75 million at the global box office. So it’s no wonder a sequel was given the greenlight… but since this was going to be a sequel in name only, it’s also not very surprising that it received a title change along the way. The “Searching sequel” is called Missing, and it was set to reach theatres on February 24, 2023. Deadline reports that it has now been moved forward to the new release date of January 20, 2023.
Details on the plot of Missing are being kept under wraps. We do know the film stars Storm Reid (The Invisible Man) and Nia Long (NCIS: Los Angeles).
Missing was directed by Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick, the editors of Searching, from a screenplay they wrote, working from a story provided by Searching writer/director Aneesh Chaganty and co-writer Sev Ohanian. Chaganty and Ohanian also produced the film alongside Natalie Qasabian, with Timur Bekmambetov, Adam Sidman, and Jo Henriquez serving as executive producers.
The release date shift allows Missing to avoid competition from the Universal release Cocaine Bear and Lionsgate’s Jesus Revolution. The only other wide release scheduled for January 20 is “an untitled Crunchy Roll film”.
Searching had the following synopsis: David Kim becomes desperate when his 16-year-old daughter, Margot, disappears and an immediate police investigation leads nowhere. He soon decides to search the one place that no one else has: Margot’s laptop. Hoping to trace her digital footprints, David contacts her friends and looks at photos and videos for any possible clues to her whereabouts.
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