Battle Of The Horror Franchises: Lionsgate Snatches ‘Paranormal Activity 2′ Director To Direct ‘Saw VII 3-D’

A heated battle between two studios for their cash-cow horror franchises has just been initiated. Last week, we reported that the director of Saw VI Kevin Greurtert had been hired to direct ‘Paranormal Activity 2′ which was set to open this Halloween right up against ‘Saw VII 3-D’. Lionsgate has just gave its comeback.

Deadline Hollywood reports that Lionsgate has decided to excise their option on the director and oblige him to direct Saw VII 3-D. In other words, Lionsgate had a contract where they had a choice to hire Greurtert back for their next film if they wanted. But Saw VII was already set with a director (David Hackl of ‘Saw V’) with shooting set to begin in two weeks. Hackl has been promised another movie as consolation and Greurtert has been snatched away from directing ‘Paranormal Activity 2′ in a questionable but nevertheless smart move by the studio to hamper that film’s release.

Being ‘Team Saw’, I’m happy that Greurtert will be directing the next installment considering Saw VI was a surprisingly great Saw film instead of Hackl who directed a mediocre Saw V. However, I’m not sure that forcing him to make it would be the best option here and would lead to the best possible Saw film. I’m much more pumped for Saw VII 3-D anyway that Paranormal Activity 2, mainly due to the fact that a sequel to a great movie that relied on a gimmick is not only unnecessary, it will pretty much be a failure. At least Saw VII will have the 3D factor working for it along with the fact that it will be a follow-up to one of the best sequels in the series.

How will Paramount respond now that they’re director-less and the release date approaches? If they really want to mess with Saw, they would release Paranormal Activity in 3-D. But my revenge schemes aside, this could be a really interesting battle between two franchises that don’t need more sequels in the first place.