Face/Off 2 Writer Says His Pitch Left The Studio Confused

Adam Wingard has ten movies under his belt as a director, but his standing in the industry is currently at an all-time high after his latest effort Godzilla vs. Kong became one of the pandemic era’s biggest box office hits. Capitalizing on that momentum, the filmmaker now has a trio of high-profile projects in various stages of development.

As well as entering talks to helm the next installment in the MonsterVerse, Wingard is working on the ThunderCats adaptation he’s been desperate to bring to life since he was a kid, while he’s collaborating with regular writing partner Simon Barrett on a sequel to John Woo’s action classic Face/Off.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard any updates on the film, but in a new interview with ComicBook, Barrett admitted that his initial pitch had left the studio confused due to the complex and ambitious nature of a storyline that sounds as though it features more than just one of the titular procedures.

“Face/Off 2 remains in healthy, active development. We have a script, we are rewriting our script, and I think we are really excited about the direction we’re taking the rewrite. But we’ve got Neil Moritz and Paramount behind us and, so far, they keep giving us somewhat befuddled, but genuinely enthusiastic thumbs up, every step of the way. I want to say something that people haven’t mentioned yet.

It took Adam and I two years to pitch Face/Off 2, because our pitch was so confusing, that the studio just kept saying, ‘We think we like what you’re saying, but can you just explain who’s got whose face on in this scene?’. Ultimately, it was only when they actually paid us to write a 35-page treatment that I think everyone really understood what we were proposing. There’s a lot of enthusiasm at the studio level, which I’m not used to. I think that has a little bit to do with my friend Adam’s recent monster movie’s success in theaters this year. But you never know, you never know.”

Based on previous comments made by Wingard and Barrett, the most important factor in getting an official green light for Face/Off 2 to enter production would appear to be the involvement of Nicolas Cage and John Travolta, especially now that Paramount appear to be receptive and understanding of what the duo have in mind. The 1997 original is a modern action classic, so the eventual sequel is going to come burdened with high expectations whatever form it takes.