Back in February, shortly after ‘Chronicle’ was released, the studio saw some incredibly unexpected success at the box office as the movie with a $12 million budget managed to gross $127 million worldwide. Naturally, success like that warranted a green light to a sequel right away, so Fox brought on writer Max Landis to write a follow-up. Since then, development hasn’t exactly progressed and rumors began to swirl that the studio was unhappy with dark nature of his new story.

However, Landis came out about three months ago and stated that the project was actually moving along and that the studio liked his script despite rumors stating otherwise. Well, it appears that the studio didn’t like his script that much as he now seems to be off the project.

The writer announced on Twitter that the sequel will be moving on without him and he hasn’t been attached for a few months now. Here’s the tweet that started the conversation about his departure:

 

He went on to express his gratitude for the first film even getting made and staying faithful to his script while revealing that new writers have been brought on that will probably be unveiled soon:

 

“Ultimately, I’m just very grateful to Fox for making a film as close to my original script as ‘Chronicle’ was. For making the film at all. So yeah it’s sad that as of right now I’m not involved in the sequel, and don’t know what it’s about even, but ultimately I can’t complain. […] ‘Chronicle 2’ is still probably happening, just not with my involvement as of now. It’s a bummer, but there are no real hard feelings. They hired new writers on it. I’m sure they’ll announce soon. Just hope this answers the questions I’ve been getting everyday.”

Finally, Landis ended by reassuring his fans that he’s got quite a lot on his plate to keep him busy even though ‘Chronicle 2’ is off the table. Here he mentions his directorial debut ‘Me Him Her’, a quarter-life crisis comedy, but he also has scripting duties on Paul McGuigan’s ‘Frankenstein’ starring Daniel Radcliffe and ‘Good Time Gang’ starring Mark Wahlberg and Jonah Hill:

“As a screenwriter, I’ve been incredibly lucky so far. And hell, I start directing my first feature on Monday, so it’s like…I don’t know. The truth is, when you’re successful as a screenwriter, you have to just take everything in stride. That’s like more than half the job.”

So even though the sequel to the film that made him a name is closed off to him now, Max Landis will be just fine. It sounds like the industry has already recognized his talents, so he should be good on work for a little while.

But that doesn’t mean that his fans and ‘Chronicle’ fans can’t still be disappointed. How do you feel about the writer getting let go from ‘Chronicle 2’? What do you think Fox will do with the story now since they don’t have Landis’ darker script to work from? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

 

Source: Collider,