It’s going on four months since writer-director M. Night Shyamalan launched Split, crisscrossed its mind-bending narrative with Unbreakable, and watched on with hushed excitement as his low-key psychological horror stormed to $275 million worldwide. And all this on a measly budget of $9 million.
Such a remarkable feat didn’t go unnoticed, either, as Universal Pictures and Blumhouse have now issued the green light on Glass, the third and conclusive chapter in Shyamalan’s cult saga. It’s arguably the textbook example of a story that grew in the telling, and sure enough, Universal is expected to allocate a bigger, “more traditional” Hollywood budget to M. Night Shyamalan’s grand finale.
At least, that’s according to veteran producer Jason Blum (The Visit, Split), who spoke with Collider in anticipation of Get Out‘s forthcoming Blu-ray release – another horror sleeper hit of 2017. Considering that Bruce Willis, Samuel L Jackson, James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy’s enigmatic character are all expected to return in time for Glass, it’s almost impossible to imagine a scenario in which Universal limits Shyamalan’s creative ceiling, in a manner of speaking. As we alluded to earlier, Split‘s global cume has instilled a sense of confidence in the project, so it’s hardly surprising to hear Blum reveal that Glass‘ budget, while small by Hollywood standards, is expected to be considerably bigger than its predecessor’s.
The budget is more traditional, still by Hollywood standards a very low budget, but it is not $5 million.
Asked when filming will get underway, Jason Blum teased that Shyamalan is eager to get the gang – and that’s the whole gang – back together “pretty soon.”
We hope so, I hope so. We have a release date in January of 2019, so we have to start shooting pretty soon.
Glass will hope to shatter expectations when M. Night Shyamalan’s conclusive threequel bows in theaters on January 18th, 2019. It’s a trilogy 17 years in the making, but what are you hoping to see from the director’s grand finale?