A24 has given the go-ahead to a sequel to “Talk to Me,” the supernatural thriller that has become a surprise hit at the summer box office (amassing more than $22 million domestically). Filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou, who got their start with a series of zany YouTube videos, will return to direct the new film, titled “Talk 2 Me.” Danny Philippou is writing the screenplay with Bill Hinzman (both wrote the original film, based on an idea by Daley Pearson).
When TheWrap spoke to the Philippou brothers, they said they were deciding between paths that they would want to take for the sequel – either following some of the characters from the original film or veering off in an entirely new direction. They also said they had created a lengthy “mythology bible” exploring the lore of the film – including where the haunted hand, which teenagers in the first film use to open a doorway to a spirit world, actually came from.
“Talk to Me” is now the second horror franchise in the A24 library of gutsy independent films with commercial appeal. Last year they released Ti West’s “X,” about a group of pornographers in the 1970s who get killed by a pair of elderly farmers. That film inspired “Pearl,” also released last year, an origin story for the farmers set during World War I. And coming soon is “MaXXXine,” a proper sequel to “X” set in Los Angeles in the 1980s.
When “Talk to Me” was released last month it opened to the second-best wide-release in A24’s history (after “Hereditary”) and has since held its own against bigger summer offerings like “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” (and Disney’s own spooky “Haunted Mansion,” which opened the same weekend as “Talk to Me”).
While plot details for the “Talk to Me” sequel are being kept under wraps, here’s hoping that it’ll be just as fun, inventive, scary and energetic as the original.
