'It Ends With Us' Franchise Might End With Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni Feud
'It Ends With Us' Franchise Might End With Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni Feud https://t.co/R2T6pJlmDL
- The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) August 21, 2024
• Any start for a potential sequel with the follow up book It Starts With Us is questionable considering the rift between star Blake Lively and director Justin Baldoni. Both of their characters are in the sequel.
• Further complicating matters: Baldoni developed It Ends With Us from the ground up after acquiring the rights from Hoover five years ago via Wayfarer Studios. Wayfarer also has rights to the sequel It Starts With Us, which would mean Lively and Baldoni working together, even if Baldoni did not direct and his role was recast.
• After the movie’s release, social media users dug up cringeworthy, lighthearted interview snippets from Lively and criticized her cross-promotion of her new hair-care line given the film’s domestic violence subject matter, while Baldoni has been accused of fostering an uncomfortable set that alienated Lively and the cast.
• One source notes that this rift dates back at least a year, with Lively not looking forward to returning to filming after production was paused during the writers and actors strike in 2023. (They saved their intimate scenes for post-strike.)
• After principal photography wrapped, the film underwent a week of reshoots, and competing cuts of the movie emerged, including one preferred by Lively, which is the cut that is in theaters, according to sources.
• Baldoni has said there are no formal plans for a sequel, though he did say on the press tour that he believed Lively was ready to direct it.
• Sony has signaled it is in Lively’s corner. On Aug. 14, as tensions online about the Baldoni-Lively rift showed no signs of slowing down, Sony Pictures Entertainment chair-CEO Tony Vinciquerra name-checked Lively, Hoover and the women who worked on the film. Notably absent from his public praise was Baldoni. Said the exec: “We love working with Blake, and we want to do 12 more movies with her.”
Source