{"id":309363,"date":"2026-02-21T06:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T06:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/309363\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T06:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T06:36:07","slug":"adam-wingard-exits-sequel-as-paramount-seeks-new-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/309363\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Wingard Exits Sequel as Paramount Seeks New Director"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/seance-filmmaker-simon-barrett-on-his-directorial-debut-and-writing-face-off-2-1234956771\/\">planned sequel<\/a> to the 1990s action movie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/lists\/nicolas-cage-best-film-performances-ranked\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Face\/Off<\/a> now has an available director\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/adam-wingard\/\" id=\"auto-tag_adam-wingard_2\" data-tag=\"adam-wingard\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Wingard<\/a>, who was previously attached to write and helm, left the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/paramount\/\" id=\"auto-tag_paramount_2\" data-tag=\"paramount\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paramount<\/a> Pictures project last summer, with both sides mutually agreeing to part ways, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Face\/Off 2 is now an open assignment at the studio, with other filmmakers pitching their own visions for the follow-up to the original 1997 cult favorite that starred <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/john-travolta\/\" id=\"auto-tag_john-travolta_2\" data-tag=\"john-travolta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">John Travolta<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/nicolas-cage\/\" id=\"auto-tag_nicolas-cage_2\" data-tag=\"nicolas-cage\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nicolas Cage<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBack in 2019, the news broke that a Face\/Off <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/face-reboot-works-at-paramount-1238422\/\">remake was in the works<\/a> from producer Neal Moritz, with Paramount hiring Oren Uziel to pen the script. In 2021, the studio brought on Wingard to direct a sequel from a screenplay that he was writing with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/simon-barrett\/\" id=\"auto-tag_simon-barrett_2\" data-tag=\"simon-barrett\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Simon Barrett<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWingard\u2019s next feature is the forthcoming A24 thriller <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/onslaught\/\" id=\"auto-tag_onslaught_2\" data-tag=\"onslaught\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Onslaught<\/a>, starring Adria Arjona, Dan Stevens, Drew Starkey and Rebecca Hall. His previous films include The Guest and the 2016 sequel Blair Witch, along with the Monsterverse hits Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire from Warner Bros. and Legendary.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/face_off_still_0.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"730\" width=\"1296\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Photofest<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tDirector John Woo\u2019s original Face\/Off centered on an FBI agent (Travolta) and a terrorist (Cage) who swap faces and identities through an experimental procedure. Paramount released the movie in June 1997, and it surpassed $240 million at the global box office, along with landing an Oscar nomination for sound effects editing. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tDuring a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-features\/godzilla-x-kong-pays-tribute-minus-one-1235860045\/\">2024 interview with THR<\/a> to promote Godzilla x Kong, Wingard teased his excitement for the progress that he had made on Face\/Off 2. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t want to get too much into the weeds on the\u00a0Face\/Off\u00a0thing, but yeah, I think the script is really fucking awesome,\u201d the filmmaker said at the time. \u201cIt is one of those things where you read it, and you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, shit! This is a true sequel to\u00a0Face\/Off\u00a0that I could have never dreamed of.&#8217;\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/face-off-2-director-adam-wingard-exits-open-assignment-update\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Collider<\/a> first reported on Wingard\u2019s exit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The planned sequel to the 1990s action movie Face\/Off now has an available director\u2019s chair. Adam Wingard, who&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[145180,321,93,61,60,63381,8705,145181,3282,145182],"class_list":{"0":"post-309363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-adam-wingard","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-john-travolta","14":"tag-nicolas-cage","15":"tag-onslaught","16":"tag-paramount","17":"tag-simon-barrett"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}