{"id":328430,"date":"2026-03-13T22:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T22:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/328430\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T22:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T22:55:08","slug":"ready-or-not-2-directors-on-bloody-shoot-brendan-fraser-mummy-sequel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/328430\/","title":{"rendered":"Ready or Not 2 Directors on Bloody Shoot, Brendan Fraser Mummy Sequel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn 2019\u2019s \u201cReady or Not,\u201d a bride, splattered in blood and viscera, laughs so hard she snorts as the bodies of her in-laws start exploding all around her. The moment is so unexpected, so absurd, so gory, that it alone made Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the directing team known as Radio Silence<\/a>, a sensation with horror fans.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe laughs in our movies are often \u2018Am I supposed to be laughing?\u2019 moments,\u201d Bettinelli-Olpin says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLike, \u2018I can\u2019t believe they just did that,\u2019\u201d Gillett adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair are hoping to outdo themselves when they debut \u201cReady or Not 2: Here I Come<\/a>,\u201d another exercise in outrageous carnage and boundary-pushing laughs, tonight at this year\u2019s SXSW<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis installment follows the bride (Samara Weaving) as she and her sister (Kathryn Newton) try to outwit the richest families on earth, who are playing a deadly game where the siblings are their prey.<\/p>\n

\n\tShot for just $6 million, \u201cReady or Not\u201d was a hit, but instead of leveraging its success to get more money for the sequel, the directors opted to keep things lean. The duo gave themselves 30 days to complete \u201cReady or Not 2,\u201d just four more than they had for the original film, so they could keep costs low. \u201cIt was a meticulously planned shoot,\u201d Gillett says. \u201cBut for as much as you can organize and plan and design, things go wrong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair look like they still can\u2019t believe they made it out alive while reminiscing over the toughest moments on a film filled with lush sets and bloody, complicated action sequences. Sets were scrapped at the end of the day, which meant no second chances to capture any missed shots, and the company had to move locations a dozen times in as many days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tElijah Wood, who has a villainous turn in \u201cReady or Not 2,\u201d says the duo\u2019s enthusiasm was contagious, overriding any stress he felt. \u201cThe atmosphere on a film set descends from the top,\u201d Wood says. \u201cMatt and Tyler create a really warm, fun environment for their crew and their cast. They\u2019re incredibly approachable. They\u2019re genre fans. They\u2019re filmmaking fans. They really love the process. It rubs off on everybody else.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDirectors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett on set of \u201cReady or Not 2: Here I Come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a9Searchlight Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tBettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, who grew up in Oakland and Arizona, respectively, met and hit it off while working in the New Line Cinema mailroom in late 2000, chatting nonstop about their favorite movies, like \u201cAliens\u201d and \u201cMidnight Run.\u201d Their sensibilities were tied up in a love of comedy even more than horror. \u201cWe find the same things funny, and creating humor out of subverting expectations was something we knew we had in common,\u201d Gillett says. \u201cThat hasn\u2019t changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tInstead of gravitating toward laugh-out-loud movies, Bettinelli-Olpin wanted to do something different; they imagined \u201cthat cop movie that\u2019s also pretty funny, or a sci-fi movie that\u2019s got a lot of jokes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSo the pair started writing short films and shooting some of them after hours in the New Line offices. They did everything themselves, from the writing to the editing to the camerawork, learning how to work efficiently together. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t like, \u2018I\u2019m the director, and you\u2019re the editor, and you\u2019re the this,\u2019\u201d Bettinelli-Olpin says. \u201cWe were just all hands on deck. And the two of us were working together really, really well. Throughout the process \u2014 when we were filming, when we were editing \u2014 I remember we had a moment where we said, \u2018We should just do this together.\u2019 It was very simple.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThey dubbed themselves Radio Silence, an in-joke about the lack of callbacks they\u2019d get about early pitches to studios. Despite the rejections, their shorts eventually got recognition, which led to bigger gigs. They provided a popular segment for the 2012 found-footage film \u201cV\/H\/S,\u201d and produced 2015\u2019s well-received anthology film \u201cSouthbound,\u201d for which they helmed two segments. Along the way, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett directed 2014\u2019s haunted-pregnancy feature \u201cDevil\u2019s Due.\u201d All of these projects paved a path to their breakout with \u201cReady or Not.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGillett describes the many hats they wore on their first sets as \u201cbuilding our own film school\u201d with collaborators, and it helped to set the terms of their ways of working early on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe know what we\u2019re asking of people and the process,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have a real humble sense of what it takes to make the rubber meet the road when you\u2019re making a movie. Between Matt and I, as well as the team of writers and producers that we\u2019ve worked with so many times, we don\u2019t just like making stuff \u2014 we love the collaboration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWeaving enjoyed this spirit on set. \u201cI feel so heard when I have a suggestion or an idea,\u201d she says. \u201cAs a young woman coming up in Hollywood, it\u2019s hard to be taken seriously sometimes. As an actor, people might assume things about you. And Matt and Tyler were so open-minded and took my ideas and let me try things out. They really do have respect for actors, and that\u2019s not always the case.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe success of \u201cReady or Not\u201d allowed the duo to throw their hat in the ring in 2020 to revive the \u201cScream\u201d series. Co-written by \u201cReady\u201d writer Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt, the fifth chapter was a fresh twist on the franchise, mixing in toxic fandom and Reddit culture by creating serial killers who are terminally online.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe way we approach everything we\u2019ve ever made is we love having fun little tie-ins and Easter eggs for ourselves and our friends,\u201d Bettinelli-Olpin says. \u201cBut we approach everything like, \u2018All right, we\u2019re making this story; we\u2019re not trying to open the door to 12 other stories and do a bunch of other stuff.\u2019 So when we were doing \u2018Scream 5,\u2019 it was as fans. We were really able to tap into the kind of core thematic premise of what the guys had written.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0The fifth \u201cScream\u201d debuted in 2022, and Radio Silence has been busy ever since, putting out a sequel in 2023 and directing the original vampire comedy \u201cAbigail\u201d in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMany of those features have been lo-fi or modestly budgeted affairs. But Radio Silence\u2019s next project will be bigger. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett were tapped to direct a reboot of the beloved \u201cMummy\u201d series, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. The previous films in the franchise were special effects-driven showpieces. Despite the sprawling canvas, the directors feel it\u2019s a job they\u2019ve been heading toward for their entire careers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAn adventure movie in the desert is the Holy Grail for us,\u201d Bettinelli-Olpin says. \u201cWe were raised on \u2018Indiana Jones.\u2019 When \u2018The Mummy\u2019 came around, we were a little older and fell in love with it. There\u2019s something about it from that vantage point that is so thrilling to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBettinelli-Olpin and Gillett don\u2019t offer many clues about how they plan to revive \u201cThe Mummy,\u201d but audiences should probably expect some of the jump scares and laughs Radio Silence is known for \u2014 even if the pair have to leave the exploding bodies out of the family-friendly fare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe love an absurd idea made very well, where it has no business being as good as it is,\u201d Gillett says. \u201cIt sneaks up on you: \u2018Oh my God, how crazy was that kill?\u2019 \u2018Whoa, that fight was nuts.\u2019 \u2018Oh, wow, I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m crying! I\u2019m actually feeling something!\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch the \u201cReady or Not 2: Here I Come\u201d trailer below.<\/p>\n

\n\tCorrection: An earlier print version of this story stated an incorrect number of shooting days for \u201cReady or Not 2.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2019\u2019s \u201cReady or Not,\u201d a bride, splattered in blood and viscera, laughs so hard she snorts as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69,83739,121591,82567],"class_list":{"0":"post-328430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-radio-silence","14":"tag-ready-or-not-2-here-i-come","15":"tag-sxsw"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}