Upgrade Director Shares Impressive LEGO Recreation of Knife-Fight Scene

Filmmaker Leigh Whannell has had a big year, having made one of the most successful horror films of the year with The Invisible Man, while also reportedly developing a remake of The Wolf Man with Ryan Gosling, though much of that success is a result of his sci-fi film Upgrade from 2018. Whannell recently took to Twitter to share with fans a LEGO recreation of one of Upgrade's most intense action scenes, which was originally posted on YouTube two years ago. With the announcement coming earlier this year that the concept was being adapted into a TV series, the film will likely be earning more fans in the near future, resulting in the above fan video earning even more views.

Whannell shared the video on Twitter while adding the comment, "Slow. Clap." Blumhouse, the studio that produced the film, shared Whannell's tweet and added, "Uh, maybe not such a slow clap. A classic in our book but we may be biased."

The film, which Whannell wrote and directed, starred Logan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel, and Harrison Gilbertson. In the film, after his wife is killed during a brutal mugging that also leaves him paralyzed, Grey Trace (Marshall-Green) is approached by a billionaire inventor with an experimental cure in the form of a computer chip implant called STEM. The implant provides its host with heightened physical abilities, allowing Grey to exact revenge on those responsible for his wife's death. The film was produced for $5 million and grossed more than $16 million at the global box office. It was also the recipient of the 2018 SXSW Audience Award.

In the new TV series, which Whannell co-created and will executive produce along with showrunner Tim Walsh (Treadstone, Chicago P.D., Shooter), picks up a few years after the events of the film and broadens the universe with an evolved version of STEM and a new host - imagining a world in which the government repurposes STEM to help curb criminal activity.

Earlier this year, Whannell teased his excitement at returning to the world of the franchise, expressing his interest in exploring a narrative on a larger scale.

"A sequel is a champagne problem created by the success of a movie," Whannell revealed to Fandom when asked about a sequel. "So Hollywood economics dictates whether there's going to be a sequel, and Upgrade ... I wouldn't exactly call it a monster hit. I'd call it a cult hit, and cult hits, when they look at the books of cult hits, they're like 'Nyah, sequel'. So we'll see. I loved making that film, so I'd love to do it with a bit more money."

Stay tuned for details on the future of the Upgrade franchise.

Are you excited by this news? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!