A little less than five months ago, filmmaker Jeff Nichols was announced as the man who would bring the first “A Quiet Place” spinoff to theaters. The filmmaker seemed like an odd, but inspired choice to be the first person to expand the ‘AQP’ universe for Paramount. Well, five months later, that plan has changed.
According to Deadline, Jeff Nichols has stepped away from directing the first spinoff of the “A Quiet Place” franchise. The untitled film is said to be based on a story idea that ‘AQP’ writer-director John Krasinski had and would be the first attempt to really expand the franchise past its main story. However, Nichols won’t be the guy to make that happen, as the report claims that he has left the project to focus on his other Paramount film, an untitled sci-fi feature.
The report also claims that the studio is hoping to continue the forward momentum of the “A Quiet Place” franchise and is eager to sign a new filmmaker fast. The untitled spinoff film is already dated for March 2023, so production will likely have to begin by early 2022 to meet that date. Considering “A Quiet Place” is one of the biggest franchises that Paramount currently has, with the 2021 sequel doing great business during the pandemic earlier this year, it’s no surprise the studio is so adamant on getting this in front of cameras ASAP.
As mentioned, Nichols was always a bit of an odd choice for the “A Quiet Place” franchise. Sure, he’s worked on “Midnight Special,” which sort of has a similar tone, but most of his previous work, which includes “Loving,” “Take Shelter,” and “Mud,” are very different than the storyline that is being explored in the massively popular horror franchise. That said, we’ve seen this sort of against the giant directing work before and if anyone can do it, Nichols seems like the type of filmmaker to make it work.
As of now, we’ll just have to wait and see who Paramount selects to continue the “A Quiet Place” story. And let’s see what mystery sci-fi project Nichols is ready to work on now.