A Feud's a Brewin'

I love feuds. They are fun to talk about and pick sides and point fingers and everything else. So I was happy to discover today that Mike Fleming over at Deadline Hollywood is reporting that it turns out something is brewing between Lionsgate and Paramount over movies scheduled for release during Halloween 2010.

So here's the story. As i wrote last week, Paramount is setting up to make a sequel to Paranormal Activity with plans for a Halloween release. The director on the project was to be none other than Saw 6 director Kevin Greutert. Saw 6 just so happened to be the major film that the first Paranormal Activity buried at the box office in 2009.

Turns out Lionsgate was also prepping the seventh Saw picture, Saw 3D (yawn!) for a Halloween release on the same day as Paranormal 2 (October 22). The project was supposed to be helmed by David Hackl who made the fifth Saw film, which was the one with that New Kid on the Block/brother of Marky Mark Whalberg standing on a melting chunk of ice with his neck bound in a noose, or was that the fourth one?

Anyway, upon learning that Greutert was going to be helming their biggest competition, the Saw Twisted Pictures, who make the Saw films in conjunction with Lionsgate, bumped Hackl off the project and stole Greutrert back since they still have an option on him after the last Saw flick.

This seems like a strange play on Lionsgate/Twisted Pictures part since, although they have left Paranormal Activity 2 directorless, if Greutert's Saw entry couldn't beat Paranormal Activity in 2009, who is to say that his next Saw film will be able to do any better against the next Paranormal Activity film? And really, the Saw franchise has become so monotonous that any young director could make an entry with their hands tied behind their back and audiences wouldn't really know the difference or care. Saw, after all, has never been synonymous with great filmmakers.