The director of one of Netflix’s most watched films ever has landed a deal with the streaming platform and is already working on the follow-up movie.
Jaume Collet-Serra, 51, has signed a rare overall agreement with Netflix after his 2024 action thriller Carry-On – which starred Jason Bateman and Taron Egerton – became Netflix’s second highest viewed film of all time.
Variety reports it has managed a staggering 185million views, while Netflix’s own charts on Tudum – which track a title’s performance during its first 91 days – claimed 172.1m.
The director told the publication: ‘From production to release, my experience making Carry-On with the Netflix team was everything a filmmaker could hope for.
‘I’m thrilled to call Netflix my creative home and excited to keep pushing boundaries together, beginning with An Innocent Girl.’
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The upcoming psychological thriller will have Collet-Serra at the helm as director and producer, alongside Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter.
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While Collet-Serra has been helming movies successfully for 20 years, from slasher flick House of Wax to Disney blockbuster Jungle Cruise, based on the company’s theme park ride, with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, this deal could be what propels him to household name status.
An Innocent Girl follows a young and ambitious woman who gets seduced by a high powered couple in Washington DC as she gets pulled into a dangerous world of power, sex and murder.
No cast has yet been announced.
Netflix film vice president Doug Belgrad praised Collet-Serra as ‘one of the most in-demand directors out there right now’ as well as his ability to ‘deliver big, high-stakes stories that audiences love’.
‘The fact that he chose to make this deal with us, especially after the great experience we had together on Carry-On, says a lot,’ Belgrad added.
‘He’s never been hotter, and we look forward to keeping that momentum going with him.’
According to Deadline, the filmmaker – who is also working on survival thriller Play Dead – has another project lined up, potetially for his Netflix deal.
As well as An Innocent Girl, his slate includes a reimagining of 1993 mountain rescue action movie Cliffhanger, which starred Sylvester Stallone alongside John Lithgow, Michael Rooker and Janine Turner.
The new version will star Lily James and Pierce Brosnan.
Fans shouldn’t necessarily expect a Carry-On sequel as part of the Netflix agreement though, after he revealed in January that a follow-up to the airport action thriller was ‘not in the cards’ at the time.
However, he did tell Variety: ‘I would like to definitely make another one.
‘When we started with the movie, it certainly felt like one unique story in a moment in time with a set of characters.
‘If an idea comes to us that feels like we can do something that is as original as the first one, and that can connect with the audience in the same way, then we’ll explore that.’
He was speaking after Carry-On became a streaming smash-hit over Christmas, dominating viewing figures to become the most watched movie title of 2024 in just a matter of weeks after its release on December 13.
It then leap-frogged films such as Millie Bobby Brown’s Damsel and 2021 star-studded satire Don’t Look Up, with Meryl Streep and Leonardo DiCaprio, to claim second place on the all-time watchlist, behind comedy thriller Red Notice, starring Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot.
Carry-On centred around young TSA officer Ethan Kopek (Egerton) who gets blackmailed by the mysterious Traveller (Bateman) into letting a nerve agent onboard a Christmas Eve flight carrying 250 people.
Previously, Collet-Serra has also directed the likes of Orphan, Liam Neeson in The Commuter and Black Adam, with his most recent release earlier this year being psychological horror flick The Woman in the Yard.
Carry-On is streaming on Netflix now.
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