'I Know What You Did Last Summer' Reboot: A Summer Must-See

Newsweek

a day ago

Sam Lansky
Sam Lansky
Jonny Marlow/SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT INC.
"We want to slam those dopamine buttons in your brain. We want to give you a good time at the capital M movies."
As a writer and a fan of the original I Know What You Did Last Summer, Sam Lansky knew he wanted to do right by everyone who loved the original before co-writing (with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson) the script for the new reboot of the franchise. "I hope fans will have a really good time, because you will recognize things and be like, 'Oh sh**, I see what they did there,' in a way that will feel really fun." One of the things fans will recognize is the return of some of the original stars. "Both Jennifer [Love Hewitt] and Freddie [Prinze Jr.] really, really cared about who these people would be all these years later, and how to bring that to the screen with so much integrity and authenticity and depth," but also "make this really, really fun for the fans." But ultimately, Lansky wants people to put their phones down and go see the new iteration of the franchise in theaters. "Everything is capital F, capital U, for you. When you go to a movie theater, you get to have a rare communal experience of entertainment.... This is a fun summer popcorn movie, it is meant to be a blast."
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Editor's Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication.
The Fisherman in Columbia Pictures I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
The Fisherman in Columbia Pictures I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
Matt Kennedy
How did all of this come about for you?
When I think about my career, I feel like I've had phases where I've worked in specific mediums and have really, really enjoyed getting to experience the fullness of that medium. And then I reach a point where I feel like I've done what I can do in that medium, and I'm ready to move on and move forward and climb a new mountain. Three years ago, I had the very fortunate experience of getting to go to Tanzania and climb Mount Kilimanjaro, which was an amazing life experience, and I would never climb that mountain again. It was so incredible. I don't need to climb again. I feel really, really grateful to have been able to do that, and once was enough.
And so for me, I had really, really incredible experiences as a journalist, I was so fortunate to get to spend formative years of my career at Time magazine, where I worked as an editor and got to profile some of the most interesting people in the world, people of whom I was huge fans and admirers and found deeply inspirational. So I had all these amazing experiences as a journalist. I also wanted to tell my own stories, and I was fortunate enough to write two books. The first, my memoir, [The] Gilded Razor, which was about my crazy teenage years, coming of age in New York City, was published in 2016. The second novel, called Broken People, which is set in the world of Los Angeles, Neoshamanism, was published in 2020, and when I sold that book, I felt a bunch of things. One was that I'd worked in solitude for a really long time on these two big projects, which were both very personal to me. So really, it was about 12 years of project-based work that was extraordinarily solitary in nature, and I really wanted to work in other mediums, and I wanted to collaborate with interesting people. I wanted to work with my friends. I wanted to make new friends working on other projects. I wanted to be a part of things, as opposed to being the driver of this ship. I also feel like I had outgrown what I now think of as a kind of youthful self-involvement. Like in my 20s, definitely the most interesting subject I could think of was myself. And by the time I turned 30, I was very ready to explore other people's stories, other characters, other worlds, ones that were totally foreign to me, being a conduit or a surrogate for other people's creative impulses, worlds, their stories, all of that became exciting to me in ways that it hadn't been previously. And so I started writing for the screen.
This is a franchise that is very well known to one generation, while this film will be an introduction to it for another generation. What was it about this film that made you want to dive into this franchise?
So the short answer is, in terms of the process of the movie, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who is our fearless director on this new installment of I Know What You Did Last Summer, and my co-writer on the movie, has been a friend for about 10 years, and we had collaborated previously on projects that never reached their full capacity, but had a very close working relationship, a deep, deep, dear friendship and a shared sensibility. And so she had broken the story for the movie with another writer, and then generously invited me in to write the screenplay with her. That was a deeply surreal thing for me, because when I say this movie shaped my early love of films, I don't know that there is another film that shaped my early love of films as significantly as the original I Know What You Did Last Summer did. Like that movie had everything for me. I remember exactly where I was the first time I saw it, at a sleepover at my friend Kyle's house. Shoutout to Kyle. His mom took us to see I Still Know [What You Did Last Summer] in theaters, even though we were 9. We had an absolute blast. I am a I Still Know defender. I loved the original so much. I loved Jennifer Love Hewitt. I loved Sarah Michelle Gellar. I think those two scream queens are some of the most defining and beloved in movie history. Freddie [Prinze Jr.] and Ryan [Phillippe] are both sensational. All four of those actors are so beautiful, so charismatic, and I think you care deeply about them. You care deeply about Julie [Hewitt] and Helen [Gellar]. Their friendship, I think, is fully realized in a way that made a really strong impression on me at the time. I have watched the movie so many times now, the original movie, and there's a scene where they're in the car together a year later, and Helen asks Julie what happened to us. And it's one of the most poignant, deeply felt, real scenes I can think of from any horror movie in existence. In the canon, I think you love those characters, you root for those characters. You're devastated when they die, truly devastated. For anybody who hasn't seen the original, awesome, but I think there's a reason that that Helen Shivers final chase sequence is one of the most talked about scenes in horror of all time. So to be invited in, to have the privilege to be invited into this process, which is really how I think of it, felt like the fulfillment of my childhood dream in a way that was surreal from the jump and has been surreal at every stage of this process. This movie, a new installment, a new imagining of this movie that I loved so fiercely as a kid, that was so defining for me and helped instill in me a love of this medium, a love of popular culture, a love of being scared. And I think Jen and I both, as collaborators on this script, and then watching her work as the master filmmaker she is, we're able to bring that love and genuine excitement into every phase of the project. I feel like if there's one thing I'm sure of, we brought that sense of fun that we felt about the movie into every part of the process, and I hope and believe that comes across on screen, like full-throttle fun. We want to slam those dopamine buttons in your brain. We want to give you a good time at the capital M movies.
(L to R) Tariq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Chase Sui Wonders, and Madelyn Cline in Columbia Pictures I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
(L to R) Tariq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Chase Sui Wonders, and Madelyn Cline in Columbia Pictures I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
Brook Rushton
A big driving force of this film is nostalgia. It's what is going to put butts in the seats. What is it about the power of nostalgia right now? Particularly in entertainment.
There were things that were in the original movie, the first film, that I really wanted us to be able to carry forward. And also, when you get into making a movie, there's production realities that you have to consider. There are parameters and things to be solved, and we were so lucky that we had the support of Sony and our whole team in getting to bring some of those things to life. There were locations from the original movie that we were really excited to bring forward and say, thoughtfully, okay, 25 to 30 years later, essentially, almost 30 years later, what would this town be like? What would have happened to this place? What would have happened to this character? Who would they be, and what would this environment be? Because in the first movie, Southport is very much a character. It is as much a character as any of the characters are. And the nautical feel of the movie, Jim Gillespie, who directed the first film, talked about Jaws as an inspiration for him, which you definitely feel of this idyllic seaside town that is then suddenly haunted by the specter of violence. We really wanted to have fun with pushing that forward a couple decades and imagining what it would be like and how it would have changed, with specific places from the original movie that are familiar, what might have come of them? So we had a really good time with that. And I hope fans will have a really good time with that too, because you will recognize things and be like, oh sh**, I see what they did there in a way that will feel really fun. I also think knowing that not everyone who comes into the theater will have seen the original—although I do think that we need to open the schools, because everyone should see the original. That should be required.
Even though you can totally watch this without seeing the original, having the original fresh in mind will make this movie that much more fun.
That's the hope. I think it was important that it stood on its own and that you did not need a deep familiarity with the original movie to enjoy this one to its fullest potential. And if you are a true head [fan of the original], you are going to get those needs met too, because there's a lot of little Easter eggs. There's one line that Freddie has in the middle of the movie that I won't spoil, it's so, so, so funny, so satisfying. And I think there's just a lot of little bits and pieces that if you know the first movie and/or the sequel you'll really appreciate it, [but] it's not necessary. So to your question about balance, making sure that there was nothing that required real knowledge going in to have an absolute blast at the theater was such a priority for us, and we really did want to deliver for the people who are like us, absolutely scholars of this canon, and wanted to do right by them.
Chase Sui Wonders and the Fisherman in Columbia Pictures I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
Chase Sui Wonders and the Fisherman in Columbia Pictures I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
Brook Rushton
I want to speak about Jennifer Love Hewitt for a second.
All I want to do is speak about Jennifer Love Hewitt.
I really feel like she doesn't get enough love as a scream queen. For me, she's our generation's Jamie Lee Curtis. What was it like not just getting her back, but getting other original actors back?
I mean, I think I actually cried sitting at the monitor watching. Like on day one, it was utterly surreal. They were movie stars for a reason, and they still are movie stars for a reason, and even if it's been a beat since you've seen Love, for example, on a giant movie screen, she has "it" in a way that is so undeniable and she is so eminently watchable, and you just want to watch her work. And with Freddie, it is every ounce, the same thing, where he steps out and the camera gets him, and you are like, "That's a f****** movie star. Oh my God." And you just really, really, really feel it. And also, with both of them, the level of care, depth of thought and commitment to these characters, I don't know, as a fan, I guess from a distance, I imagine that actors would have a relatively detached relationship with these characters they've played, because it was a job they did for a couple weeks, and then they go on to their lives. Like Jennifer Love Hewitt goes home and she's not Julie James. You know what I mean? I think I had always imagined wrongly, that there was more of a kind of detachment from these characters, especially ones that you played years ago. Both Jen and Freddie really, really cared about who these people would be all these years later, and how to bring that to the screen with so much integrity and authenticity and depth, and also how to make this really, really fun for the fans. That was so impressive to me, just two people of consummate artistic integrity. And when I say integrity, I really do mean it. This is a fun summer popcorn movie, like it is meant to be a blast. And what they brought to that was such a commitment and dedication that felt really deep and really inspiring to see. Like, I want to in my career approach everything I do with the level of care and thought to craft that both of them came to these performances.
Do you think we're seeing a return to the summer teen horror flick?
I think that we're in an interesting moment right now in terms of what's working and what's not. I think that the theatrical experience, which I feel a worshipful level of reverence to, I don't watch a ton at home. The movie theater is my favorite place in the world. I love watching things in the theater, and I think so much of the way we live now is we've got our screens and our algorithmic realities that are being presented to us, and everything is capital F, capital U, for you. And when you go to a movie theater, you get to have a rare communal experience of entertainment, where, obviously, it's self-selecting. You've opted in, you bought a ticket, you want to see this movie, but you all get to experience it together, as opposed to the specific, personal prism of your own devices. And that is really special, because we love as people to be entertained by something together. And I feel like I'm doing a worse version of Nicole Kidman's AMC ad.
Nicole comes in and she just goes, "Let's just say, 'We come to this place.'"
A much better version. "You're absolutely botching this, bro." [laughs] No, I do feel like it's a really special experience. And so it seems to me, when I kind of look at the things that are popping at the box office, when we thought about what we wanted to bring to this movie, when I think about the next movies I want to write and create and be a part of, I want to be a part of movies that feel like those big theatrical experiences, because that's what I grew up on. That's where I saw the world for the first time. In so many ways, for so many of us, it's such a powerful portal to other worlds and other lives and other experiences. And when you share that with other people, I think it is fundamentally better. My favorite film of last year, I think, was probably The Brutalist. Not everyone wants to sit through four hours of The Brutalist, that is a self-selecting group of people, and The Brutalist is a profound, brilliant movie, [but] my first word for it would not be fun. I think so many people are starved for fun, and they are starved for fun in community with connections with other people. I think we want to have fun together. The pandemic shutdown era was really difficult and scarred a lot of us. I think the world gets weirder and scarier in all kinds of ways all the time, and an extraordinary tonic for that is getting your friends together and going to the movies and screaming and laughing and throwing your popcorn and having an absolute blast. And that is what we want to deliver to people. And that's what I want to deliver to people in my career. Period, full stop. And if we can Trojan horse some social commentary or a big idea or something more thematically sophisticated or complex, 100 percent I want to do that.