‘Fall’ Sequel In The Works After Vertigo-Inducing Thriller Becomes Surprise Netflix Hit
EXCLUSIVE: Acrophobia sufferers look away now, the makers of vertigo thriller Fall are plotting a sequel after the film became an unexpected hit on Netflix internationally.
British producer Tea Shop Productions and director Scott Mann are discussing ideas for a second movie, which will look to unsettle audiences with another terrifying tale set at a great height.
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Fall premiered last August and stars Grace Caroline Currey (Shazam! Fury of the Gods) and Virginia Gardner (Gaslit) as friends who scale and get stuck up a 2,000-foot radio tower in the desert.
The indie thriller grossed close to $22M after being made on a $5M budget and has enjoyed word-of-mouth success on streaming services including Netflix, where it has scored top-10 rankings in four territories. It is available on Starz in the U.S.
Fall has been Netflix’s second most-watched movie in the UK for two consecutive weeks, with only Idris Elba’s Luther: The Fallen Sun performing better.
The film debuted on Netflix in the UK in January and Deadline understands it has performed impressively for the streaming service, which has not dedicated marketing resources to the title.
Tea Shop cofounder James Harris said Fall‘s simple central conceit and carefully curated artwork and trailers have helped get audiences talking.
“We were pleasantly surprised by how everybody has such a visceral reaction to it,” he said. “It is one of those movies where word of mouth really helps.”
Mark Lane, Tea Shop’s other co-founder, added: “It’s an easy thing for people to pick up on a streamer. You can see the concept in the poster image and we’re finding that if people try it, they are getting hooked instantly.”
Being in control of the marketing materials was important, Harris said. “You can make a good movie but unless you present companies with a way to market it, a lot of the time they mess it up. It was quite important for us to say, ‘Shove it,’ to people and control how to do the marketing.”
The pair have enjoyed success with a similar concept, 47 Meters Down, which features two women getting stuck at the bottom of the ocean in a shark cage.
Commenting on a Fall sequel, Harris said: “We’ve got a couple of ideas we’re kicking around … We don’t want to make something that feels like a copycat or less than the first one.”
They may look to involve Currey in the second film, but no decisions have been made. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead) played Currey’s father in the first film. The plan is to “get moving” on the project later this year.
Fall was shot in June 2020 with the backing of Capstone Group after a number of studios passed on the picture. Lionsgate later picked up the movie for U.S. theatrical release.
It was shot outside Palmdale, California, with Tea Shop erecting a 20 ft tower on a 100 ft hill to provide a false perspective while the rest was achieved in post-production.
Despite being one of the first films to get rolling during the pandemic, Covid-19 was not always the biggest problem. Filming was shut down for a day after a rare thunderstorm proved to be the catalyst for an ant infestation on the tower.
Fall saved around half a million dollars in reshoots by using deep fake technology to dub out all of Currey and Gardner’s frantic “f*cks” and make it suitable for PG-13 audiences. Mann’s company Flawless provided the artificial intelligence technology for the workaround.
“We had to ditch the best part of 100 shots,” Harris said. “It can really save movies from spending millions of dollars on very small reshoots. You can really change the narrative in post in a more affordable way.”
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