Final Destination Cheats Death: Reboot set at New Line Cinema

New Line will try to cheat death again in a re-imagining of the Final Destination franchise with two writers from the Saw film series at the helm.

Almost twenty years ago the first Final Destination premiered. The film went on to gross over $100 million dollars worldwide. It stars Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, Devon Sawa, and horror icon Tony Todd (Candyman). The concept is a surprisingly simple one. Alex (Sawa) has a horrible premonition of himself and all of his friends dying in a catastrophic plane crash.

Terrified, he goes into a panic and convinces everyone to get off the plane. Lo and behold, his vision actually comes true. But Death doesn’t allow anyone to cheat it and so the remainder of the film is about the plane crash survivors attempting to outrun their fate to varying degrees of success.

Subsequent Final Destination films followed the exact same formula, each beginning with a premonition and the residual panicked fall-out, substituting one B-list actor for another, creating more ludicrous accidents and bloodier death scenes. The franchise declined in critical score (although it was never super high to begin with) and by the time the series got back on track with its fifth and final film (which many people agreed was a step-up from its predecessor) in 2011, the entertainment value had worn off for many fans.

Even star Tony Todd never believed a sixth Final Destination film was going to happen. Just a few days ago he spoke about why he believed that in an interview with Bloody-Disgusting:

"“I am [surprised] but I know why there hasn’t been [another sequel],” Todd said. “It’s really an expensive film to shoot. Just getting whatever accident set pieces, like for example part two with the whole traffic accident, that took a good five weeks to shoot and at least 20 million bucks."

Turns out, Todd may have miscalculated the franchise’s worth.

Over its 11-year run, the Final Destination series managed to rake in more than $600 million dollars worldwide. While perhaps not as lucrative as other cash-cow horror franchises, it was a staple in New Line’s repertoire and proves there could still be an audience for these films.

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I count myself amongst the people who have been clamoring for a retool or reboot of the franchise. In fact, I just recently watched Escape Room (2019) and felt it shared spiritual ties with with both Final Destination and Saw. I’ve thought the time was ripe to bring these movies back for a while now and according to an exclusive with The Hollywood Reporter, it looks like New Line Cinema agrees. They’re planning a reboot or re-imagining of the franchise and they’ve hired none other than Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, writers responsible for writing four of the eight Saw films currently in existence.

We’re living in an era of horror rejuvenation. The entire genre has been transforming and evolving along with our social and cultural climate. Some of the smartest, most relevant, socially conscious, and genre-bending work is being done in the horror genre. So it begs the question of how a new Final Destination would look coming out in this decade. I’m imagining something either much darker than the former or something more campy and self-referential. Either way, it’ll be interesting to see the series with a facelift.

I also wonder if hiring Saw writers will mean we’ll be getting more updated, creative and gory deaths. I guess everyone better get ready to rework their lists ranking all the death scenes in the Final Destination franchise!

Any and all plot details on the sixth Final Destination are being kept firmly under wraps so it’s impossible to tell whether or not it will remain following the same formula as the others or when it might be released, but I’m excited to see what they come up with.

Were you a fan of the original Final Destination films? Are you looking forward to a reboot of the franchise? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!