Blake Lively is about to ask Anna Kendrick for another favor.
The pair will be reteaming for a sequel to their 2018 comedic thriller A Simple Favor. Director Paul Feig will be returning behind the camera with screenwriter Jessica Sharzer, who adapted the 2017 novel of the same name by Darcey Bell, will be scripting this new installment. Studio Lionsgate and Amazon are teaming to produce.
The original films features Kendrick as Emily, a bubbly single mom and video blogger who strikes up an unusual friendship with Stephanie, the upper-class mother (Lively) of one of her son’s classmates. When the woman disappears, she starts to investigate, uncovering the woman’s dark past. The film was left open-ended enough for a sequel.
It is not too surprising that the film is getting some sort of followup. The original was shot for a nice, tidy $20 million budget and ultimately returned $97.6 million at the box office.
While none of the reporting is clarifying this, it does appear that Amazon’s involvement suggests that this new film will be bypassing theaters and going direct to the streaming service. That would be a bit of a shame. Even though it isn’t a large special-effects extravaganza that really benefits from the theatrical experience, the pipelining of smaller films direct to video always seems to be a disservice to them. This is especially true in terms of comedies, which always seem to play better with a room full of people than for just a small number sitting at home.
