Steven Quale, who served as second unit director on Avatar and Titanic, co-director on Aliens of the Deep and has been a protege of James Cameron’s going back to The Abyss, has landed the role of directing Final Destination 5, says THR.com. Cameron even reportedly recommended his friend for the job to New Line. New Line was apparently interested in someone with 3D experience and technical know how to helm the next installment, which probably means it’ll go the 3D route again. Whatever.
Quale seems to have the credentials and I hope he does well on the gig, because the last installment, The Final Destination, was disappointing and brought almost nothing new to the franchise, save for the 3D gimmick. What the next installment is going to need is to build upon what FD2 did, which was expand the mythology. There need to be options like the one presented in FD2 (you can beat death by dying and then being revived) or not being able to die until one’s time, which TFD did bring up, but didn’t really explore. Otherwise the entire film is merely academic, no matter how interesting the kills. Bringing Tony Todd back also sure wouldn’t hurt.