'Bloodlines' writer returns for record-breaking 'Final Destination' sequel

Following ‘Bloodlines’ record box office run, Lori Evans Taylor to write the next ‘Final Destination’ film.

New Line Cinema is doubling down on death’s enduring cinematic appeal, greenlighting a new Final Destination movie with Bloodlines co-writer Lori Evans Taylor returning to pen the script. The decision follows the massive success of Final Destination: Bloodlines, which hit theatres in May and became the franchise’s highest-grossing entry, pulling in over $286 million worldwide, $138.1 million of that from domestic audiences.

Released as the sixth installment and the first since 2011, Bloodlines revitalized the series with its familiar formula of supernatural inevitability, premonitions, and elaborate death sequences. Its domestic earnings more than doubled the previous top-grosser in the series, 2009’s The Final Destination. Taylor co-wrote Bloodlines with Guy Busick (Ready or Not), based on a story developed with Busick and Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts, who also produced alongside his wife Dianne McGunigle. Directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, as well as franchise veterans Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor, were also instrumental in the reboot’s success.

The Final Destination concept remains deceptively simple yet endlessly adaptable: a protagonist has a vision of a deadly accident, prevents it, and inadvertently sets off a chain of gruesome ‘accidents’ as Death claims its intended victims one by one. Since its launch in 2000, the franchise has grossed over $983 million globally, making it New Line’s third most successful horror property, behind The Conjuring universe ($2.3 billion) and the It films ($1.2 billion).

Taylor’s horror credentials extend beyond Bloodlines. She adapted Carla Norton’s The Edge of Normal (with Chloë Grace Moretz starring), wrote the psychological thriller Cellar Door, directed Bed Rest starring Melissa Barrera, and adapted I Am Still Alive for Universal with Ben Affleck attached.

No release date for the new Final Destination has been announced, but with Taylor back on board, fans can expect more inventive, morbidly clever ways for Death to get the last word.