There's been a good deal of confusion surrounding the upcoming horror sequel Rings. Early reports pegged it as a sequel to The Ring Two, and then a couple weeks ago there were reports suggesting that the movie would wind up being a prequel. Apparently we're now back to square one, as the director of the new project has revealed that the new film actually takes place way after all of the events we last witnessed in the continuity.
F. Javier Gutierrez, who signed on to make Rings back in July, took to his personal Twitter account this weekend, and used the venue to dispel rumors that came out about the project earlier this month. He wrote:
Some of you will be quite to note that this is somewhat strange, as Hideo Nakata's The Ring Two only came out 10 years ago, in 2005. Before you start wondering if the movie is set in the near future, however, you should reconsider the details. The plot of The Ring Two picked up very shortly after the events of Gore Verbinski's The Ring, which was set in 2002. Adding in the figure given by F. Javier Gutierrez and Rings' release date later this year, you have numbers that sync up.
With a release date scheduled for just eight months from now, Rings is now getting into gear in Atlanta, and the most recent Tweets from F. Javier Gutierrez actually suggest that today is the first day of principal production. Yesterday the filmmaker sent out a message about "Getting ready for the big day" with multiple Rings-related hashtags, and early this morning he posted this image and tag on Instagram:
Going by the hashtags, it seems very clear that Rings will once again be following the terrifying and tragic story of Samara Morgan, but at this point we know very little beyond that. Matilda Lutz will reportedly star, taking Naomi Watts' place as franchise lead, and she and Gutierrez will be working with a script most recently reworked by screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. In order to allow a decent amount of post-production time, the sequel likely won't be filming for too long, and we'll see the finished product when it hits theaters on November 13th.
