Following a couple of hit-and-miss instalments from Millennium films, the rights to the unwieldy Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise have reverted to the 1974 film's co-writer and producer Kim Henkel. Henkel has now done a deal with studio Legendary for future massacres, and the latest news is that Evil Dead and Don't Breathe's Fede Álvarez has now signed on to produce and "oversee" – but not direct – a new sequel.
Clearly with one eye on the success of Halloween last year, the intention is that the new film will entirely ignore everything that's happened in the franchise since Tobe Hooper's original classic. This is actually par for the course rather than a radical new direction: the first three Texas Chainsaw sequels (1986-1995) barely have anything to do with the original film or each other; there are already two contradictory prequels (The Beginning and Leatherface); there's been a remake of the original; and 2013's daft Texas Chainsaw 3D itself drew a line under everything else and attempted a complete re-start.
In short, there's really no continuity to contradict, perhaps reflecting that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre doesn't actually lend itself very easily to the standard slasher-franchise template, despite superficial appearances. It doesn't have the option of a splashy publicity angle like Halloween's return of Jamie Lee Curtis either, since Marilyn Burns is sadly no longer with us – although the role of original survivor Sally could, of course, be recast.
Whatever, it's early days yet, and Álvarez' immediate job is to attach the perfect filmmaker to the project. In the meantime, if you didn't catch 2017's Leatherface (directed by Inside's Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury and starring Lili Taylor and Stephen Dorff), it's currently available on Netflix in the UK.