'The Craft: Legacy', sequel to the 90s cult classic, set for UK cinema release this Halloween
Watch: The first The Craft: Legacy trailer
The Craft: Legacy, a ‘continuation’ of 1996’s teen horror The Craft, is coming to UK cinemas on 28 October.
The sequel had been in development for several years and was filmed in October last year, but very little was known about when it might come out. But now, in surprise news, Sony Pictures has fast-tracked the film’s release in time for Halloween.
The original – which starred Neve Campbell and Fairuza Balk – followed a group of teenage high school outcasts who form a coven of witches. Despite mixed reviews, it was a modest hit and has since gone on to become a cult classic.
Read more: The Craft reboot is about ‘female empowerment’
The sequel looks set to pick up where the previous film left off with Hannah, a teenage girl, joining a new school, where a coven trio think they’ve found their fourth member. The trailer shows the girls discovering a photo of Fairuza Balk’s Nancy, hinting that a cameo may be on the cards.
The sequel, produced by Jason Blum under the Blumhouse banner, has been written and directed by Zoe Lister-Jones (Band Aid/Lola Versus) and stars Cailee Spaeny, Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone, Zoey Luna with Michelle Monaghan and David Duchovny. In North America, the film is being released straight to PVOD.
Jones’ pitch for The Craft: Legacy was so impressive that Jason Blum previously called it: “one of the best pitches [I’ve] ever heard … She pitched it and you could see the entire movie in a 20 minute pitch which was amazing. It’s very rare.”
Douglas Wick, who produced both The Craft films said Lister-Jones, who wowed Sundance with Band Aid, had found an interesting way in.
"It's always challenging, because I did The Craft so many years ago, and I started doing it because I just wanted to make a movie about teen-aged girls coming into their sexuality and as I was reading about it, I was reading that the age-old mythology for talking about female empowerment and fear of it was witchcraft,” Wick told ComicBook.com.
“So then I started going to writers to try and do that… We talked to so many people and we found a really talented female writer/director [Zoe Lister-Jones] and we're happy with what she's doing, so we'll see."
The Craft: Legacy is coming to cinemas on 28 October.