’ feature directorial debut, , received critical acclaim at Sundance in January 2020, but then, like everything else, it was lost in the shuffle of the world-altering pandemic. The horror film — which had backing from the respective production companies of the Russo brothers and Jake Gyllenhaal — used the genre to deliver an allegory on dementia and the pain that accompanies our older loved ones’ aging process. The low-budget Australian-American co-production still managed to make a few million dollars at 2020’s beleaguered global box office, but all in all, deservedly put James on the studio system’s radar.
In March 2021, the Japanese-Australian filmmaker was hired to co-write and direct the -led for Paramount+ This time, she had support from the production banners of John Krasinski (Sunday Night Productions) and Michael Bay (Platinum Dunes). While the title gave the game away to certain cinephiles, the production didn’t immediately disclose that was a prequel to 1968’s . And given the legal baggage that comes with the latter’s filmmaker, Roman Polanski, James, understandably, had to weigh the considerable cons before finally committing.
“One of the big considerations was making sure that there was a separation between [ ] and the original film’s creators not being involved in this one,” James tells . “So we had these discussions prior to starting a redraft of the script. We also tried to reference Ira Levin’s original book as much as we possibly .