According to trade reports, Gellar will reprise her role as an American exchange student who came in contact with the ghostly force while serving as a caretaker to a woman in a haunted house. But for the second go-round, the erstwhile Buffy won't get too much face time, which makes sense since her character seemed doomed at the end of the first flick.
Instead, her character is expected to turn up briefly in the beginning to pass the curse onto the next hapless innocent lead in the movie--a part that has yet to be cast.
Takashi Shimizu, who wrote and directed the original 2003 Japanese frightfest Ju-On and the shot-for-shot Gellar-fronted Hollywood remake, is returning to helm The Grudge 2. He will cowrite the script with Stephen Susco, his collaborator on the first Grudge, which ended up being an unexpected hit at the box office, grossing $110 million domestically.
The sequel will be distributed by Columbia Pictures and produced by Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spider-Man) and his partner at Ghost House Pictures, Rob Tapert, in association with Mandate Pictures and Vertigo Entertainment
"The union of Sarah's innocent girl-next-door persona and Shimizu's twisted Eastern perspective should spawn another original and terrifying tale for the audience," Raimi tells the Hollywood Reporter.
Gellar has a number of big-screen projects in the pipeline, including the thriller The Return, due out next year. She is also lending her voice to Happily N'Ever After, an animated retelling of several Grimm fairy tales that also features the voice of her hubby, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Sigourney Weaver.
She recently wrapped Southland Tales, an ensemble piece directed by Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) in which she plays an adult film star developing her own reality TV series during a three-day heatwave in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles.
Gellar's other film credits include the two Scooby-Doo flicks, Cruel Intentions, Scream 2 and I Know What You Did Last Summer.
The Grudge 2 starts shooting in Tokyo next month and will hit theaters just before Halloween in October 2006.
Thanks eonline.com |
