When Max Landis tweeted the news last month that he would not be writing the sequel to his superhero found-footage film Chronicle, he sounded understand disappointed. And now that he has tweeted about what his screenplay was going to be about, I imagine that there are a lot of fans of the first film who will be disappointed as well after reading the following –
In retrospect, I'm not even sure if fans of the first film wouldve been ready or eager for my second installment as originally written.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 10, 2013
Gone was the aspirational "what would you do," gone were the pranks and bromance, gone were lovely tragic Andrew and hopeful, bright Steve.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 10, 2013
In their place was a dark, frustratingly unblinking stare into a complicated world that posed the question is it worth it to be a hero…
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 10, 2013
…Told from the point of view of a heartbroken and insane woman who would martyr herself to the cause of being the world's first villain.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 10, 2013
It was, in my estimation, a sequel that elaborated on the ideas and situations from the first to create a different genre of movie.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 10, 2013
In the best of worlds, in my optimisitc but wildly prejudiced eyes, this could make it an Aliens, a Terminator 2…in the worst a Grease 2.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 10, 2013
So at the end of the day, maybe it's better that Martyr never saw the light of day. Sad I didn't get to do some of my other versions.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 10, 2013
The multi-movie low budge Chronicle-based found footage superhero universe culminating in an Avengers type team up was a real good one.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 10, 2013
The most frustrating thing is that I don't know if I'll get the opportunity to explain what MOGO was or what he was doing in that cave.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 10, 2013
Martyr also had two pretty cool robot suits in it. Sorta hyper realistic iron man stuff. Magnetic flight, sonic weaponry. Cool, cool stuff.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) August 11, 2013
From just these small bits, it sounds like Landis has put a lot of careful thought into the world he initially created in the first Chronicle screenplay and was looking forward to exploring it in further depth and in ways that haven’t really been done before in a superhero genre film. And while I suppose we should be grateful that Twentieth Century Fox invested the $12 million it cost to make the first film, it is obvious that the $126 million that the film brought in at the box office is causing them to be very hands on with the sequel. And by hands on, I mean incredibly reluctant to deviate too far from the story of the first film.
In the meantime, the studio has either hired or are still looking for a writer to take over the project. No doubt we’ll find out who has landed the job at some point. More than likely, it will be whomever develops a story idea that the studio deems a safe enough variant on the original to try and not scare fans away from the box office. But with director Josh Trank off working on Fantastic Four for the studio and Landis off the projet, I know that my enthusiasm for a Chronicle sequel is virtually non-existent at this point.
