A sequel to the Netflix hit Murder Mystery is moving forward with a new director finally announced. Jeremy Garelick has reportedly signed on to direct an official sequel to the movie with the expectation that Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler will both return to reprise their roles.
At this time, there's a screenplay for the sequel written by James Vanderbilt with Garelick set to do a "polish." Vanderbilt also penned the screenplay for the original Murder Mystery, which was directed by Kyle Newacheck. Released to Netflix in the summer of 2019, the movie stars Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler star as a married couple caught up in a murder investigation on a billionaire's yacht. Also featured in the cast are Luke Evans, Terence Stamp, Gemma Arterton, David Walliams, and Dany Boon. Though reviews were mixed, viewership for the movie was rather high which is enough for Netflix to order a sequel.
Word of Murder Mystery getting a follow-up dates back to 2019, when it was reported that a sequel was in development with Vanderbilt in negotiations to write the script. The streamer announced at the time that almost 31 million households viewed the first movie within 72 hours, making it one of the biggest opening weekends in Netflix history. The release also marked the most successful release for Sandler at the time for the streamer as part of his deal with Netflix.
Jeremy Garelick is known for writing The Break-Up, which featured Aniston in a lead role opposite Vince Vaughn. The filmmaker later made his debut as director with The Wedding Ringer, a comedy starring Kevin Hart and Josh Gad. Last year, Garelick also helmed a parody of The Purge called The Binge, that was released directly to Hulu. A dystopian comedy, the spoof movie also starred Vaughn in as a school principal in a world where all drugs and alcohol are illegal except for one day a year.
"I don't know 100 percent what the sequel is. They're working on it right now," Sandler told US Weekly last year. Fans were not the only ones excited when Murder Mystery reunited Sandler and Aniston. In a separate interview with THR, Sandler noted: "Jennifer and I are great friends. She works well without me. I'm just glad when she invites me for the ride! What I loved most about [Murder Mystery] was it was a married couple that gets together and shows what it's like when you support each other and rely on each other. It's a very romantic movie about marriage, that's what I liked about it."
Sandler and Netflix have been releasing original movies since The Ridiculous 6 in 2015. His other movies included The Do-Over, Sandy Wexler, The Week Of, and Murder Mystery. Last year, Netflix announced a new four-movie deal with Sandler's Happy Madison Productions worth $275 million. Clearly, the streamer has been happy with the content Sandler has brought to the service and they're not looking to slow down anytime soon.
No release date has yet been set for the sequel to Murder Mystery, but the plan is to start shooting the movie in Paris and the Caribbean in the near future. For now, you can check out the original movie streaming on Netflix. This news comes to us from Deadline.