‘I Know What You Did Last Summer Team’ Talk New Trailer

On Saturday night, in a screening room on the Sony Photos lot, director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson screamed right into a microphone: “What are you ready for?!”

Effectively, not solely Robinson. She had a refrain of journalists and influencers backing her up — all yelling out to a projectionist who was ready to roll the brand new trailer for the summer time slasher, “I Know What You Did Final Summer time.”

For the uninitiated, the exclamation is a callback to the battle cry from Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Julie James within the 1997 horror flick a few quartet of teenagers who, after a lethal automobile accident, get stalked by a vengeful, hook-wielding fisherman. This summer time, Robinson revives the franchise with a brand new installment, which follows one other group of younger folks from Southport who, once more, crash their automobile on a darkish, windy highway after which are haunted by the implications of their killer mistake. Authentic stars Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. reprise their roles as James and Ray Bronson, whose survival expertise — and residual trauma — will hopefully show helpful to this subsequent technology (Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Sarah Pidgeon, Gabriette Bechtel and Tyriq Withers) as a result of everybody isn’t going to make it out alive.

The brand new footage reveals extra in regards to the film’s plot, which begins at a pre-wedding celebration for Cline’s Danica and her fiancé Wyatt (Joshua Orpin), the place she receives a notice with the titular menace. (Cue the flashback to the scene of the crime, on July 4, 2024, when the clique commits vehicular murder, then covers it up.) Those that watched the primary trailer know that Wyatt is just not lengthy for this world — he will get harpooned after which hooked by the Fisherman whereas Danica is within the tub — however this clip emphasizes that there are extra kills to return. And, to outlive, they’re going to wish some assist.

Enter Ray, then Julie.

“You’ll be able to’t run. You’ll be able to’t disguise,” Julie says, giving Wonders’ Eva some sensible recommendation. “Get them earlier than they get you.” (The query is, who’s “them?” as a result of, because the trailer teases, it appears somebody within the group is definitely a killer.)

Within the two-and-a-half-minute trailer, eagle-eyed followers will spot some callbacks to the unique film and acknowledge a few of Southport’s extra notorious areas, just like the Croker Queen pageant corridor, the place Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Helen Shivers begins her epic chase scene with the Fisherman within the unique film. (These children have their fair proportion of battle scenes and scream queen moments, too.)

The clip ends with a closing thrill — a close-up of Julie, gravely asking, “What are you ready for?”

Because the display screen reduce to black and the company cheered their approval on the launch occasion, Robinson was joined by the movie’s stars Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Sarah Pidgeon, Gabriette Bechtel and Tyriq Withers, in addition to co-writer Sam Lansky to debate all of the stabs, scares and screams to return when the film hits theaters on July 18.

Turning into a scream queen (or king) is tougher than it seems, although. “I dare you all to go dwelling and attempt to scream for so long as you may. It’s tougher than you suppose,” Wonders informed the group through the Q&A, moderated by creator and podcaster Danny Pellegrino. “The ‘scream queens’ which have come earlier than me, I’ve the utmost respect for. I believe all of us have a hearty scream in right here, however following within the footsteps of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sarah Michelle Gellar, the 2 of them have superb screams!”

Capturing the magic of the unique movie was a problem Robinson was prepared to just accept. The “Somebody Nice” and “Do Revenge” filmmaker was such an enormous fan of the franchise that when Sony referred to as to ask if she had a tackle it, she agreed to signal on earlier than the executives completed saying the title. “Earlier than they stated the phrase ‘Summer time,’ I used to be like ‘Sure, thanks. I’ll do it,’” Robinson recalled.

However, as she and Lansky labored on the script, they received right into a “heated argument” in regards to the 1998 sequel “I Nonetheless Know What You Did Final Summer time.” The controversy was by no means over whether or not the sequel is “canon,” however how a lot that film’s traumatic occasions would colour Hewitt’s return, and thus dampen the “actually, actually enjoyable” slasher film Robinson meant to make.

“Jen and I had gone to Southport, North Carolina ourselves — simply to expertise Southport in all its authenticity. And that evening, we had been staying in resort rooms subsequent to one another, and we determined to observe, ‘I Nonetheless Know…’” Lansky defined. “As we received deeper and deeper into it, I used to be like, ‘Man, if this occurred to you, not as soon as, however twice … I’d by no means belief anybody once more. Finally, I believe we got here to a very wholesome center floor, a wholesome compromise, when it comes to how traumatized and formed by what occurred to her, Julie is.”

About recruiting Hewitt and Prinze Jr. to be concerned, Robinson stated, “There was no film with out them.”

She pitched them immediately on the premise, giving them her spiel about why the film ought to exist now. Then, as soon as they had been on board, they labored intently to develop the characters. “This film is about how trauma informs and shapes and modifications you beneath all of the enjoyable screamy gags,” Robinson stated. “It was about determining precisely what these folks can be like right this moment, later in maturity, having lived with what occurred to them for as a few years as they’ve.”

What about Karla (performed by R&B celebrity Brandy), Julie’s faculty bestie who additionally survived the sequel? Audiences can anticipate an replace on her whereabouts. “Go see the film,” Robinson stated. “And see it on opening weekend.”

Certainly, balancing a reverence for the supply materials with making a recent, new story was difficult, however the filmmakers relished discovering enjoyable methods to pay homage to what got here earlier than.

“We by no means wished to do something for lack of a greater phrase, ‘gratuitous,’ like for the sake of doing it,” Robinson stated. “The way in which that we’ve constructed the lore of, particularly the primary film, into this film, allowed us to play with issues from the unique in a method that felt prefer it was part of their story as nicely, relatively than it being on high. It is vitally a lot woven throughout the material of this new installment.”

In serving to this film have its personal id, Robinson upgraded just a few key components, together with the fisherman’s costume. “It’s years later, so it’s a distinct slicker. The opposite factor — and nil shade to the unique hook; we love her — however she’s, like, not sharp!” the filmmaker quipped.

So, Robinson labored with the manufacturing design staff to craft a brand new hook with a markedly sharper level, and never solely that, “however the within the hook can be a blade,” she stated. “So, we made it actually dangerous.”

The prop was the very first thing Bechtel encountered when she received on set. “I used to be like, ‘That is the scariest factor I’ve ever seen,’’ she recalled. “The true one was a hazard.”

Naturally, a sharper weapon results in bloodier and “much more excessive” kills. “There are lots of twists, figuratively and actually, with the hook. There’s simply extra exacting revenge,” Pidgeon teased. “The kills, I believe, are extremely inventive within the film that we made. And on a much bigger display screen, there’s far more blood, far more guts. It’s like Costco model.”

Sony is actually hoping that the film will herald large quantities of dough on the field workplace. If all goes nicely, are there plans for a sequel?

“I don’t greenlight that!” Robinson stated, laughing as she admitted that it has been mentioned. “We have now an thought. Some folks survive …”

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