Renny Harlin (The Misfits, Exorcist: The Beginning), who will helm all three films in the planned trilogy, has begun filming in Slovakia with Frame Film, owned by Rastislav Kuril. According to Variety, filming on the first film of the proposed trilogy, a remake of the 2008 film of the same name, began in August in and around Bratislava. Bryan Bertino’s first feature film, starring Scott Speedman (Underworld) and Liv Tyler (Armageddon), was a home invasion film he wrote and directed.
The picture, which was distributed by Universal Pictures in May 2008, was initially a sleeper smash, but it and its March 2018 sequel, The Strangers: Prey at Night, have now gained cult classic status. The forthcoming film will feature Madelaine Petsch (Riverdale), Froy Gutierrez (Cruel Summer), and Gabriel Basso (Hillbilly Elegy). It will focus on Petsch’s character as she and her longtime partner (Gutierrez) move to the Pacific Northwest. Car trouble near Venus, Oregon, forces the two to spend the night in a remote Airbnb. Almost immediately, things go wrong, and the three masked strangers who have been keeping them company torment them from night till morning.
The franchise starter was written by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland (The Freak Brothers, Due Date). Mark Canton (Power Universe, 300), Christopher Milburn (The Protégé, Unhinged), Gary Raskin (Midway), Charlie Dombeck (The War with Grandpa), and Alastair Birlingham (The War with Grandpa) are producing, with help from Courtney Solomon (Cake, After film franchise) (Moonfall). With executive producers, Andrei Boncea, Dorothy Canton, and Roy Lee, and co-producers Johanna Harlin, Juan Garcia Peredo, and Alberto Burgueno, the new The Strangers film also feature the work of Rafaella Biscayne for the Slovakian studio Frame Film SK.
Petsch presently appears in the romantic comedy About Fate and is a mainstay in The CW’s smash drama Riverdale as Cheryl Blossom. Jane, Sightless, and Polaroid are just a few other movies she’s been in. Hotel for the Holidays, which will premiere on Amazon Freevee in December, will also feature her as a lead. In the second season of Freeform’s Cruel Summer, in which Gutierrez stars as Jamie Henson, the show has been renewed.
Light as a Feather, Teen Wolf, and One Day at a Time are just a few of the other series he has guest-starred on. The much-anticipated sequel Hocus Pocus 2, which will debut on Disney+ on September 30, also features the actor. Basso, who has been in films such as The Kings of Summer and Super 8, took the helm in the latest Ron Howard thriller, Hillbilly Elegy. As the son of Laura Linney’s Cathy, the actor is well-known for his role on Showtime’s The Big C. The actor will soon be seen in the action film Trigger Warning directed by Mouly Surya and the Netflix series The Night Agent.