There are numerous upcoming horror films on the way in which, however I’ve been notably excited to know extra about what’s in retailer for the brand new I Know What You Did Final Summer time film, particularly after discovering out Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Julie James is formally returning alongside Freddie Prinze Jr’s Ray Bronson. After not too long ago studying that dealing with the return of Julie didn’t come with out some forwards and backwards from its new writers, my pleasure has solely been elevated.
On behalf of CinemaBlend, I had the prospect to attend the trailer launch occasion for I Know What You Did Final Summer time over the weekend at Sony Footage Studios in L.A. Whereas there, we have been among the many first to observe the model new trailer (which you’ll watch beneath) together with an insightful dialog with the filmmakers and new solid members.
Wasn’t {that a} blast?!? Now right here’s what author/director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson needed to say concerning the writing course of with co-writer Sam Lansky, no less than when it got here to addressing the primary official sequel to the O.G. slasher. In her phrases:
Sam and I are each enormous followers of the franchise, to the purpose the place we as soon as received in a heated argument about I Nonetheless Know What You Did Final Summer time, to the purpose the place I used to be like, ‘We must always simply go to mattress. We must always simply go to mattress and we’ll do that tomorrow.’
Robinson, who beforehand directed Netflix’s Somebody Nice and Do Revenge, shared that she and Lansky are such superfans that wished to do justice to the franchise that they actually received into it whereas watching the 1998 sequel I Nonetheless Know What You Did Final Summer time collectively. On the time, the writers really went to the franchise’s key setting of Southport, North Carolina to expertise the city for actual.
Chatting with the topic of authenticity, Robinson continued, saying that Lansky was extra invested in sticking to the truth of the sequel, whereas Robinson had extra of a joyous return in thoughts. As she put it:
I used to be on the facet of it needs to be actually, actually, actually enjoyable, and also you simply wish to have numerous enjoyable. And like, sure, there’s trauma and there is backstory and it is canon. It was by no means not about not being canon. However Sam was like, ‘If this occurred to you, you’ll be traumatized ceaselessly, Julie James.’ And so it was identical to us speaking about how traumatized Julie James needs to be on this film versus how traumatized a human being could be in actual life.
So mainly, they received actually deep into Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character Julie James, and the way they need to logistically method the character practically 30 years after her final look, with out initially seeing eye to eye. And hey, they each have a degree!
As Robinson shared, she type of wished Julie to be a bit unserious and stay the “enjoyable” character that followers fell for to start with, whereas her co-writer had different concepts. As Lansky added:
As we received deeper and deeper, I used to be like, ‘Man, Julie! If this occurred to you not as soon as, however twice? And this man seems to be the son of the man from final time, I might simply by no means belief anybody ever once more. And, that is how we must always write Julie.’ And in the end, I feel we got here to a extremely wholesome compromise by way of how traumatized and formed by what occurred to her Julie is.
It does have me questioning how the current day Julie James might be like after their “heated argument” on the subject, however nonetheless, I’m excited to see her deal with the character after so lengthy. I get either side, as a result of I need Julie to match the spirit of the unique, however I additionally assume Sam has a extremely good level, that it will be odd if the film would not get into how this might have an effect on somebody.
Whereas we received a glimpse of her within the first trailer, this new one reveals that she’ll be tremendous concerned with the entire I Know What You Did Final Summer time solid in making an attempt to take down the mysterious fisherman killer on his new reign of terror. I like that the trailer has her saying a callback line from the unique, which completely makes me wish to rewatch the unique, whereas not gifting away numerous the important thing plot beats.
That is positively a type of 2025 film releases I’m marking my calendar for. It’ll attain theaters on July 18.