You’ll recall that after the success of “A Quiet Place,” director John Krasinski, who had already expanded the original screenplay, had many ideas on his mind, sequels, and spin-offs that took place in different parts of the world, essentially plotting to franchise his alien-invasion family-driven thriller (it fascinating to look back on our interview with Krasinski from 2018). Obviously, “A Quiet Place II” came out in 2020, and “Pig” filmmaker Michael Sarnoski is working on “A Quiet Place: Day One,” a post-apocalyptic horror spin-off due March 8, 2024, starring actors like Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou, and Denis O’Hare. But before that, filmmaker Jeff Nichols, who just came out with the Telluride Film Festival hit, “Bikeriders,” was scheduled to make his own spin-off, very possibly even the same one that Sarnoski is now making, which is a prequel.
It even once had a March 2023 release date at one point. But to hear it from Nichols, who was recently on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, promoting his successful “Bikeriders” premiere (read our review) here, Paramount may have gotten a little ahead of itself, and he maybe didn’t actually get very far with the film or idea.
While he noted that he worked on his now-scrapped “Alien Nation” film for four years in the same podcast, calling its falling apart a “heartbreaker,” when it came to “A Quiet Place,” he sounded relieved it didn’t get made.
“I dabbled with…John Krasinski called me about maybe doing ‘A Quiet Place’ prequel,” he said. “But luckily, that didn’t work out. I just wasn’t the right fit, you know?”
“Dabbling with” sounds much less concrete than a release date, so one has to wonder if Paramount just got too aggressive with announcing a release date or if Nichols is just downplaying things.
Nichols said he’s not even a writer on the new upcoming prequel. “Nah, Nah, they took it over, and I’m sure they’re doing something really special with it because Michael Sarnoski took it over, and that guy’s a really great filmmaker, but stuff like that wasn’t the right fit.”
Nichols didn’t elaborate on why he wasn’t the right fit but suggested maybe he had a different creative vision. “The only power you have as a filmmaker is to sense those things and go, ‘yeah, I’m just gonna step back. I’m gonna step back from this, and hopefully, the universe is watching out for you.”
And overall? If you’re looking at Nichols as the guy to take over your franchise, you’re probably looking at the wrong filmmaker. Elsewhere in the interview, he detailed why he would have been entirely inappropriate for DC’s idea of what an “Aquaman” film would be—he gave a pitch at one point, but it sounds way too dark and serious from what they eventually landed on— and he also added, “[I.P.] doesn’t really interest me that much. That stuff is just fun to noodle on.”
Listen to the full interview below, but yeah, franchise guy? It sounds like Nichols is much, much more interested in making original genre pieces and is not your guy for the job.