With ‘The Conjuring’ coming out this weekend you may have expected to hear reviews, sales figures, and the like. What you probably weren’t expecting to hear (before the film’s release) was the announcement of a sequel already in the works. Clearly New Line is betting ‘The Conjuring‘ will do well this summer!
Who are we kidding? It’s a horror film and these days each one is made with a franchise in mind! At the very least, this one looks absolutely terrifying. For those who have been following the new franchise being brought to us by New Line, they aren’t surprised at all.
New Line President Toby Emmerich had this insightful and truthful statement to say about the role of horror in the company:
“Horror is very much a part of the DNA of New Line — ‘Nightmare on Elm Street,’ ‘Friday the 13th,’ ‘The Rite,’ and the ‘Final Destination’ films, This is as good a horror movie as we’ve ever made…. We think it will have great playability.”
New Line knows horror and the entire concept has franchise built into it. The film is based off one of the cases from Ed and Lorraine Warren, a married couple who were actual real life paranormal investigators. In fact, the film itself was originally planned on being called ‘The Warren Files’ which could have easily been turned into ‘The Warren Files: The Conjuring’.
‘The Conjuring’ already has a great built in franchise opportunity right off the bat as two of their other cases are ones that you might be more familiar with. They could go with ‘The Warren Files: The Amityville Horror’ and’ The Warren Files: The Haunting in Connecticut’. Yup, both of those films were based off investigations that The Warrens had done. It’d be a great way to take a new look at both films and get a franchise going in the process!
Speaking of franchise opportunities, when the subject of the film being the start of a franchise was brought up to Patrick Wilson (who plays Ed Warren in the film) he had this to say:
” I don’t know who else would play him now. [Laughs] Vera and I wouldn’t have signed on for one not knowing that they didn’t want to do more. That’s just the nature of the beast.”
With all of the early views from ‘The Conjuring’, I’m looking forward to seeing this one. With the film being based off of real life cases and having a built in set of sequels (including new looks at films already out there,) it could take the horror world by storm if they are done correctly.
Do you think ‘The Conjuring’ has what it takes to properly kick off a new franchise? Are you excited for it’s release this weekend?
Source: Cinema Blend