While speaking toThe Hollywood Reporterabout their new hit horror film,Talk to Me, filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou revealed that they’ve already shot a prequel focusing on Duckett (one of the two character’s from the movie’s cold open). When asked about the possibility of a sequel or a Duckett prequel, Michael replied:
“We actually shot an entire Duckett prequel already. It’s told entirely through the perspective of mobile phones and social media, so maybe down the line we can release that. But also while writing the first film, you can’t help but write scenes for a second film. So there’s so many scenes.”
He added, “The mythology was so thick, and yeah, if A24 gave us the opportunity, we wouldn’t be able to resist. I feel like we’d jump at it.” Michael then chimed in saying, “We have a lot of original stories that we want to tell, but theTalk to Mestuff is exciting to us, too. So the idea of a sequel, we wouldn’t be opposed to it.”
According to THR, the twin brothers were first inspired to makeTalk to Meafter seeing their friend Daley Pearson’s short movie about possession. From there, the filmmakers (who previously worked on local Australian film sets likeThe Babadook) used their connections at Causeway Films to reach out to founders Kristina Ceyton and Samantha Jennings aboutTalk to Me. However, despite showing interest in the horror film, the producers initially encouraged the filmmakers to work with the U.S. studio system. Still, the Philippou brothers noted that working with American studio execs didn’t seem like the right fit for what they wanted to do withTalk to Me.
Danny said, “There were hints that maybe they didn’t want to shoot it with Australian accents anymore or even shoot it in Australia. So that was really terrifying to us.”
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Michael Philippou Said That Making the Film Independently “Just Gave Us a Lot More Leeway”
The director continued, “They gave us some notes that weren’t necessarily bad notes at all, but it was veering in a direction that we weren’t connecting with a little bit. The way we’d written it was not as typical or something. We weren’t finding out the origins completely and explaining where it came from on screen and talking to the expert. So we just wanted to have complete creative control and not have to change the script too much. We also wanted to have final say on casting and final cut as well.”
Michael added, “Yeah, the final cut was a big thing as well. We just care so much about every single frame of the film. If someone had the power to come and change that without our consent, that’s terrifying to us. So doing it independently just gave us a lot more leeway to know that the film was gonna be ours and not misconstrued by someone else.”
Talk to Meopens with the story of brothers Cole(played by Ari McCarthy) and Duckett (played by Sunny Johnson). In the sequence, Cole is frantically searching for his brother at a house party. It’s made clear that Duckett is possessed and things quickly take a dark turn for the brothers.
