20th Century Fox’s found-footage super-powers flick Chronicle was one of the big surprise hits of last year, so it didn’t come as much of a shock when Fox announced that Chronicle 2 was in development. While director Josh Trank opted against a return – moving on instead to helm the upcoming reboot The Fantastic Four – screenwriter Max Landis remained on board to pen the sequel, but the last we heard (from Max’s dad, John Landis) Fox were unhappy with the script’s direction, and the project looked to be on the rocks. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case, with Landis (Max, that is) providing an update on the progress of the follow-up:
“Chronicle 2 is in an interesting place right now. It’s moving along. 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. Josh is directing Fantastic Four. I’m doing a hundred other movies. Chronicle 2 has become this question of ‘How do we all make a movie that we all respect?’ And that’s true to what Chronicle is.”
Landis also played down talk of any animosity between himself and the studio: “There’s no one at the studio who wants to make a bad movie. They all want to make a good movie just as much as I do. We’re not fighting. 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.”
Apparently, Landis then went on to finish up the interview by stating that Chronicle 2 will definitely happen, and that he’s “65-70% sure it will be a pretty damn good movie” – which seems to be a really bizarre way of drumming up interest, but at least he’s being honest, I guess.
Originally published April 9, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
