‘Crawl 2’ Heats Up at Paramount as Horror Thriller Eyes Fall Shoot (Exclusive)

Paramount Pictures is crawling back for more.

The studio is deep in development on a sequel to Crawl, its gator-gnashing horror movie released in 2019, and is eyeing a fall shoot in Europe.

Andrew Deutschman and Jason Pagan, known for penning horror flick Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension and time-travel romp Project Almanac, are writing the script.

French-born horror fiend Alexandre Aja, who directed the initial movie, will be back in the director’s chair. Aja is also producing as well as Craig Flores and horror master Sam Raimi, all of whom produced the original.

Crawl, written by Michael and Shawn Rasmussen, starred Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper as a daughter and father duo who find themselves trapped in a Florida home and hunted by a gator (or three) during a Category 5 hurricane. The movie proved profitable for Paramount, generating $91.5 million on a budget of under $14 million.

Crawl 2 will feature a new cast and a new location, in this case the more urban dangers of New York City, according to sources.

Gregory Levasseur and Zainab Azizi will executive produce.

Aja broke through with the French horror movie High Tension and made his American studio debut with the intense 2006 remake of Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes. Among his other credits are the gloriously over-the-top Piranha 3D, as well as Horns, the adaptation of the Joe Hill novel that starred Daniel Radcliffe and Juno Temple.

In recent years, Deutschman and Pagan have set up several projects around town, working with Paramount and Original Films on an untitled horror feature based on a series of TikTok videos and Every House Is Haunted, set up at Netflix with Corin Hardy attached to direct.

Aja and the scribes are repped by WME. Aja is additionally repped by Industry Entertainment and Hansen Jacobson. Deutschman and Pagan are additionally repped by Underground and Frankfurt Kurnit.