Weapons filmmaker Zach Cregger confirmed he and Warner Bros. are in talks for the prequel movie centered on hair-raising villainess Aunt Gladys, played memorably by Amy Madigan.
“It is real and I’ve been talking to Warner Bros. about it,” the horror helmer told magazine Fangoria ahead of the film’s digital release. There’s a story and I’m pretty excited about it. It’s not bullsh–.”
Cregger added that the talks were also independent of Weapons‘ box office and critical success, with the gestation of the idea predating its nearly $150 million domestic gross (and cumulative $263 million worldwide) against a budget of under $40 million.
“I was ready,” Cregger said of the prequel. “I had it kind of in my pocket before the movie came out.”
Deadline confirmed last month that WBD subsidiary New Line Cinema was having early discussions surrounding a prologue film. At the time, it was unclear in what capacity writer-director Cregger would be a participant in the project, as he is currently rebooting Resident Evil for Sony Pictures and will later work on Flood, a sci-fi film for which he’s completed a script.
Madigan, whose Aunt Gladys has taken the world by storm, added regarding whether she would return for a follow-up: “It’s not that I discount it, but in this business, nothing’s real ’til it’s real. I just had such a great time working with Zach and being inside that brain of his. That’s really the gift of how the movie came out. The other stuff has to do with all sorts of conversations that I would never be privy in and business things like that. But, you know, I love Gladys, so I’ll leave it at that.”
Following up the 2022 horror film Barbarian that put him on the map, Creggers’ Weapons unravels the mystery behind the inexplicable disappearance of 17 third-graders who vanish from their homes at exactly 2:17 a.m., and the resulting fear and rage in inspires in their insular community. In addition to Madigan, the cast includes Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong and Cary Christopher.
Deadline recently spoke to the artisans who crafted Aunt Gladys’s indelible look, with makeup department head Leo Satkovich reflecting on the character’s popularity: “It’s something that’s so surreal to me that I feel like I’m still processing … We knew that we were creating a very special character. I personally just do not feel I was prepared for just how much of a chokehold the world was going to be in.”
The post ‘Weapons’ Helmer Zach Cregger Confirms Aunt Gladys Prequel Movie: “There’s A Story And I’m Pretty Excited About It” appeared first on Deadline.
