Froy Gutierrez to Star in Renny Harlin’s Lionsgate “The Strangers” Remake

It’s a strange(r) time Froy Gutierrez

The 24-year-old Mexican American actor will star opposite Madelaine Petsch and Gabriel Basso in a Lionsgate remake of the 2008 horror film The Strangers, which has entered production in Slovakia.

Froy GutierrezRenny Harlin is directing the film, which will be the first in a trilogy, having locked in a deal to helm the subsequent pair.

The original film The Strangers was a home invasion film that Bryan Bertino wrote and directed in his feature debut, with Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman starring.

It registered as a sleeper hit upon its May 2008 release via Universal Pictures and came to be appreciated in the years following as a cult classic, with the sequel The Strangers: Prey at Night being released in March 2018.

The new Strangers film will follow Petsch’s character as she drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend (Gutierrez) to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest. When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.

Lionsgate plans from there to expand the story in new and unexpected ways with its sequels.

Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland wrote the franchise launcher, to be distributed worldwide by Lionsgate.

“My mother instilled the love of movies in me through the world of Hitchcock and other masters of suspense and horror. My breakthrough to Hollywood happened with the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4,” noted Harlin. “It is only fitting that I get to return to my favorite genre with the incredibly well written trilogy of The Strangers. The characters and the storyline are all grounded in reality and offer me an endless tapestry of haunting visuals in bringing these movies alive.”

“When setting out to remake The Strangers, we felt there was a bigger story to be told, which could be as powerful, chilling, and terrifying as the original and could really expand that world,” said Solomon. “Shooting this story as a trilogy allows us to create a hyperreal and terrifying character study. We’re fortunate to be joining forces with Madelaine Petsch, an amazing talent whose character is the driving force of this story.”

“When you’ve got two horror aficionados like Courtney Solomon and Renny Harlin coming together, you’ve got all you need to create some incredibly smart, lean-forward-in-your-seat, addictively thrilling entertainment,” said Mark Canton. “Fans of the original film will be blown away; new audiences will discover the intensely unnerving world of The Strangers.”

The Strangers taps into such primal fears that it will always be relevant,” added Eda Kowan, Lionsgate’s EVP of Acquisitions & Co-Productions. “But what truly sets this project apart is the way the filmmakers have expanded the story and given these characters a new life.”

Gutierrez plays Jamie Henson on the Freeform series Cruel Summer, which has been renewed for a second season, and has also been seen on shows like Light as a FeatherTeen Wolf and One Day at a Time. Also coming up for the actor is the long anticipated Hocus Pocus 2, which is slated for release on Disney+ on September 30th.

Braeden De La Garza to Appear on Season Two of Freeform’s “Cruel Summer”

Braeden De La Garza is preparing for a cruel summer

The Latino actor has landed a recurring role on Freeform’s Cruel Summer. in the series’ sophomore season.

Braeden De La GarzaHe joins a roster of new cast additions that includes Nile Bullock and Jenna Lamb.

They will join Lexi Underwood, Sadie Stanley, Griffin Gluck and KaDee Strickland, Lisa Yamada and Sean Blakemore.

Set in an idyllic waterfront town in the Pacific Northwest, the next chapter of Cruel Summer follows the rise and fall of an intense teenage friendship. Approaching the story from three different timelines surrounding Y2K, the season twists and turns as it tracks the early friendship between Megan, Isabella and Megan’s best friend Luke, the love triangle that blossomed, and the mystery that would impact all of their lives going forward.

De La Garza will portray Brent, Luke’s arrogant and entitled older brother. The favorite son in their prominent family, he enjoys exerting his power over the other kids and Luke.

Cruel Summer comes from studio eOne and was created by Bert V. Royal. Elle Triedman serves as showrunner. The series is distributed internationally by eOne.

Freeform Renews Froy Gutierrez’s “Cruel Summer” for Second Season

It’s an extended Summer for Froy Gutierrez

Freeform has renewed its most-watched series ever Cruel Summer, starring the 23-year-old half-Mexican American actor, for a second season.

Froy Gutierrez, Cruel Summer

The decision was announced ahead of the series’ season one finale this week.

How the Jessica Biel-executive-produced series returns is still up in the air; the mystery could return with a new story with the same characters and actors or using the same storytelling device featuring a whole new cast of characters.

Cruel Summer is a psychological thriller that follows two young women: Kate Wallis, the popular girl with a charmed life who one day goes missing, and Jeanette Turner, the nerdy wannabe who is accused of being connected to Kate’s disappearance. All signs point to Jeanette’s guilt, but is Kate really who she seems to be? Set over three summers and told through shifting points of view, the series challenges perception and follows how one girl can go from being a sweet outlier to the most despised person in America.

In addition to Gutierrez, the series also stars Olivia Holt, Chiara Aurelia, Michael Landes, Harley Quinn Smith, Allius Barnes, Blake Lee and Brooklyn Sudano.

The series, which was the first scripted series to debut under new Freeform president Tara Duncan, who started the job just under a year ago, became the Disney-owned network’s most-watched series ever, ranking as the number one new cable drama of the year among women aged 18-34, with the most recent episode delivering the drama’s biggest linear TV audience yet, rising by 31% over its premiere. In multiplatform+35 day, the series, which is available on Hulu the day after its linear airing, averages 6.8 million viewers per episode, and was also the streamer’s most-watched next-day season one title from a linear channel in its first seven weeks to date.

“I think what has really resonated with audiences is that there’s a very clear, strong mystery, but a mystery that’s told from the point of view of two characters that people can really relate to,” says Duncan. “That central conceit of ‘is the grass always greener on the other side?’ and that perspective of ‘who do you believe Jeanette or Kate?’ and that the story should shift depending on whose shoes you stand in, I just think is one that is really relatable for this audience. The idea of an unravelling mystery that’s told week over week is one that the audience has obviously responded to.”

Cruel Summer is based on original idea and isn’t a reboot, sequel series or even based on a book, podcast or news story.

“People were wondering was this a true story because it has a real ripped from the headlines feel. I think that’s a testament to the storytelling, quite frankly, and again the fact that this is a story told from the perspective of two characters, the audience has really been able to see themselves in both of them. If you’ve got great characters and a story well told, it will find an audience and succeed and really break out,” Duncan said.