The living will communicate with the dead once again next October 21st, when Universal and Blumhouse unleash Ouija 2 into theaters. Announced earlier this year, Ouija 2 now has a director and lead actor, and both are familiar to viewers of last year's horror hit Oculus.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mike Flanagan will helm Ouija 2 and Annalise Basso will play one of the lead roles. Flanagan became a director to watch after the well-received release of his mind-bending Oculus, which centers around the horrific effects of a supernatural mirror.
Annalise Basso starred as the young version of main character Kaylie Russell in Oculus, and Basso will team up with Flanagan again in Ouija 2, as she's been set to play "a young girl grieving the death of her father" in the film. With a title like Ouija 2, you can imagine what this "young girl" might use in order to touch base with her departed dad. As originally reported in April, Flanagan will co-write the screenplay with constant collaborator Jeff Howard.
Released in 2014 and loosely based on the infamous Hasbro board game, the original Ouija certainly wasn't a critical hit, but it raked in the big bucks at the box office, garnering over $100 million on a modest $5 million budget, so it's no surprise that a sequel is moving forward in fast fashion.
Ouija 2 is slated to haunt theaters on October 21st, 2016. As part of their first-look deal with Universal, Blumhouse Productions will back the sequel, with Jason Blum producing alongside Hasbro’s Brian Goldner and Stephen Davis, as well as Platinum Dunes' Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form.
Flanagan and Howard are staying busy in the meantime. Their new horror thriller, Before I Wake, hits cinemas September 25th, and they're developing an adaptation of Stephen King's handcuff horror story, Gerald's Game. Also in the works on the duo's plate is a reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer, though a director has not yet been named for that project.
Mike Flanagan:
Annalise Basso:
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
Daily Dead's Official Podcast! Daily Dead's Official Podcast!
