New Line is moving forward with Final Destination 6 after hiring Freaks directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein. The horror movie franchise began in 2000 when New Line released the first Final Destination, starring Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, and the legendary Tony Todd as Bludworth. It was here that audiences were introduced to the concept of a group of people who escape from Death's plans only to have a variety of unbelievable events lead to their ultimate demise anyway. Final Destination became a box office hit thanks to its small budget and launched a franchise that is currently five movies deep.
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Over a decade after audiences last saw a collection of characters have their crazy encounters with Death, Final Destination 6 is currently in development after first being announced in 2019. It eventually took a big step forward in 2022 when Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts joined as a producer. The question remained who was going to direct Final Destination 6, which is described as a relaunch of the franchise that still takes place in the same universe as the first five Final Destination movies.
Now, Final Destination 6 has taken another massive step forward after THR reports New Line hired the directing duo behind Freaks, Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein. That 2018 horror movie received very strong critical reviews and saw a boom in popularity once it became available on Netflix. Lipovsky and Stein will direct Final Destination 6 based on a script written by Ready Or Not's Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor and treatment from Jon Watts. They were chosen after a year-long director search that included over 200 candidates, in part thanks to a now legendary Zoom call where they sneakily included a pre-recording that showed one of them being decapitated by a ceiling fan after a series of accidents.
Final Destination 6's Directors' Pitch Proves They Are The Perfect Choice
Those who have seen Freaks will know that Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein are good choices to direct Final Destination 6, but the details of their Zoom call pitch confirm that it is true. The call to New Line executives and producers was business as usual with the two filmmakers together in the same room. As the meeting came to a close, the fireplace behind them began to burn too strongly, allowing the fire to catch the mantle above. This is when the directors stopped the meeting and grabbed extinguishers to put out the fire, much to the relief of the people on the call. But once they sat down, a ceiling fan broke and decapitated one of them. They used a combination of pre-recorded material and visual effects to pull off the trick and win over the execs.
If there was any doubt that Final Destination 6 was in good hands, the ingenuity and creativity displayed by Lipovsky and Stein in their pitch prove that it is. The filmmakers clearly have a passion for the franchise and delivering the same type of unbelievable and inventive deaths that audiences have come to expect from it. Considering it was Final Destination 5 that delivered a major twist ending to make it a prequel to the first movie, it should be fun to see how Final Destination 6's directors put their stamp on the franchise next.