Hey, remember a couple of months ago when it was announced that Chris Rock would be producing and crafting the story for a reboot-quel of the Saw franchise? Well, that project is the exact opposite of Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek, in that production on the Darren Lynn Bousman-directed film is currently underway, and you’ll probably get to see this film before climate change catches up with us. Not much has been heard about Rock’s Saw project since then, but the dam smashed open on Monday morning with a casting announcement that might shake the franchise’s foundations.
According to Lionsgate, Samuel L. Jackson, Max Minghella and Marisol Nichols have joined the cast of the film. This news dropped alongside confirmation from the studio that Rock would be acting in the project as well as participating behind the scenes.
Quoth Lionsgate Chairman Joe Drake:
“We think Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Rock along with Max Minghella and Marisol Nichols make this film completely special in the ‘Saw’ canon and we can’t wait to unleash this unexpected and sinister new story on fans of this franchise. This is next level of ‘Saw’ on full tilt.”
The Playlist (where we also got the above quote from) also provided some extra details about the casting. Rock will play “a police detective that is hot on the case of a murderer in a series of grizzly deaths.” Jackson will play Rock’s dad, Minghella will play his partner, and Nichols will play the pair’s boss.
So, this is obviously very, very interesting. This is the most star wattage that any of the Saw films have ever had — remember, the biggest name that any of the previous movies had attached to them was Danny Glover’s or Cary Elwes’ — and we’re kind of excited to see what Rock’s going to do here. We’re going to slightly miss the Canadian dinner-theater supporting casts of these movies (they provided a lot of the fun, honestly). But we’re just going to go out on a limb here and say, after a recent re-watch of the franchise on our part, that there has never been a truly “good” Saw movie (we had fun with Jigsaw, however), and we’re excited to see what Rock and Bousman have lined up for us.The Untitled Saw Project will hit theaters on October 23, 2020. We’re kinda pumped!