David Fincher's Se7en is a film that really never needs a sequel. The movie is an excellent, self-contained serial killer mystery, and while the idea of seeing Morgan Freeman and/or Brad Pitt come back to those roles, it truly never needs to happen. As you can imagine, that didn't really stop Hollywood from trying, but the good news is that those efforts didn't pan out. The weird news is that the sequel that never was may actually be coming to theaters later this year in a different form.
This curious bit of information was picked up by a user on Reddit, who discovered a MovieHole article from back in 2011 that says that the upcoming supernatural thriller Solace, starring Anthony Hopkins and Colin Farrell, was actually at one point developed as a sequel to Se7en. As the story goes, the project first began life - under its current title - in 2002 as a spec script penned by Ocean's 11 screenwriter Ted Griffin. Taking what was an original story about a psychic/former doctor who takes a job with the FBI hunting a killer, the studio had the script rewritten as "Se7en 2," with the lead character transformed into Morgan Freeman's Det. William Somerset.
For some reason or another, the idea was apparently dropped, and the script was rewritten once again as an original thriller called Solace. In the years since that point the film managed to put together an impressive cast - including the aforementioned Hopkins and Farrell in addition to Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Abbie Cornish. Alfonso Poyart, the filmmaker behind the 2012 Brazilian film Two Rabbits, directs Solace, and if IMDb is to be believed then the movie has already completed production.
Earlier this year, FearNet had the chance to speak with Colin Farrell about the project, and while he confirmed that the movie in its current state has no direct connection to Se7en, it does have a similar thing going on tonally. Said the actor,
It explores a similar genre to Seven, but it's different. I haven't seen a single frame of it yet, but I can't wait to see how the film turns out."
So what is the future for Solace right now? It's hard to say. Looking around online there doesn't seem to be any release date information and the title isn't mentioned on the official Warner Bros. press site. If the movie does end up coming out this year, hopefully we will get our first look at it in the coming weeks or months. We'll keep you posted as more information becomes available.
