John Krasinski Lines Up ‘Life On Mars’, His Sci-Fi Follow-Up To ‘A Quiet Place’
FormerThe OfficestarJohn Krasinskisurprised a lot of people – us included – withA Quiet Place, his terrific newhorror filmthat cost $17 million to make but has already grossed $85 million worldwide. We expect Paramount to green light a sequel any day now, but Krasinski isn’t interested in waiting around. He’s already signed on for his next directing gig, a sci-fi film calledLife on Marsthat will reunite him with the producers ofA Quiet Place. Read on Marsbelow.
The Hollywood Reportersays Krasinski will reteam with Platinum Dunes producers Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form forLife on Mars, which is not to be confused with the UK or US TV shows that aired in the mid-to-late-2000s. The film is based on a short story by authorCecil CastelluccicalledWe Have Always Lived on Mars, and THR describes the plot like this:
That’s similar toA Quiet Placeonly in that it has a high-concept hook (although this one is apparently focused more on character than cinematic form this time around), and it’ll be cool to see what he does with a different type of story here. The writers ofA Quiet Placealreadyhave some ideas in mindfor a sequel, but I’m glad Krasinski is capitalizing on the first movie’s success and rolling straight into another project. I’d love to see him become a consistent, reliable presence directing high quality genre movies.
Krasinski found this short story and took it to the team at Platinum Dunes, but he’s not expected to both direct and act this time around.Life on Marsalso doesn’t have a writer attached at this point, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Krasinski ends up taking a pass at the script; he wrote the script for 2009’sBrief Interviews with Hideous Menand co-wrote 2012’sPromised LandandA Quiet Place. No word yet on if Emily Blunt would be interested in starring, but after the stellar work they did in their first collaboration, I wouldn’t mind seeing them work together on a regular basis. Paramount is currently circling to distribute.
