Despite being a sequel to the Saw mythology that went to great lengths in the marketing to distance itself from Jigsaw, director Darren Lynn Bousman was constantly fielding questions about Tobin Bell’s involvement, or lack thereof.
As it turns out, the filmmaker was toying with the idea of a cameo from John Kramer right up until the final day of shooting, before he decided to let Spiral stand on its own merits instead. The presence of Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson propelled the ninth installment in the franchise to a $40 million box office haul, enough to push Saw past the billion-dollar threshold, and more content revolving around elaborate traps is in development.
However, Bousman is reuniting with Bell on a new horror title that also has Jeremy Irons starring, as per Deadline. Production has already wrapped on Cello, which was shot on location in the Czech Republic and Saudi Arabia, so we could be seeing the finished product in a matter of months.
The plot follows an aspiring cellist who learns that the price to pay for his new instrument will be a lot more than money, which is fairly vague, even if a haunted cello isn’t something we can say we’ve heard before. Bell and Irons partnering up promises plenty of gravitas, so this is definitely one for genre fans to keep a close eye on.