Saw: Legacy Could Be Coming Soon

After seven installments, the trap-happy Saw franchise finally drew to a close in 2010 with its 3D Final Chapter. Since then there have been regular whispering of what studio Lionsgate might be planning to do with the property: the assumption being that, while it had run its initial course, there was still some sort of life in the series. Pitches have come and gone, but six years on, Saw 8 (or VIII, if you prefer) is now officially in development. It has a title - Saw: Legacy - and a pair of screenwriters in the Piranha films' Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger.

Saw, of course, began in 2004 with James Wan's now classic, self-contained, low-budget ordeal. Not an obvious candidate to spawn six sequels, it nevertheless managed just that, with writer Leigh Whannell continuing through the next two, and Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan picking up the story for the rest. Darren Lynn Bousman directed parts II, III and IV, production designer David Hackl did V, and Kevin Greutert did VI and VII, the latter something of an unwilling contractual obligation. Wan and Whannell remained as hands-off executive producers throughout all the follow-ups, and will get the same credit on Legacy.

One of the Saw franchise's most interesting ideas was to attempt to tell a single story across all the sequels. It may have ended up a complex, unwieldy web of flashbacks and retcons, but at least it wasn't just the same yarn with a different cast every time. The Final Chapter did leave threads hanging for possible future contributors, but at this stage there's no sense of quite what Saw: Legacy will be. Continuation? Reboot? Prequel? Nobody's saying. But one thing's pretty much certain: there will be blood.

Stolberg also directs - he made Crawlspace and, er, The Hungover Games - so may have an eye on manning the cameras for some self-penned new Saw action too, although that's also yet to be confirmed.

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