Saw XI Stalled Out At Lionsgate, According to Writer

The Saw franchise has fallen into the oldest trap in Hollywood, with the latest film in the franchise stalled due to a producer dispute. Patrick Melton, who co-wrote the script for the planned Saw XI, told THR that the film has made “zero progress” since May of last year due to what he called “inter-squabbling between producers and Lionsgate.”

“We haven’t heard anything since May,” Melton said of the new film. “It’s stalled at a managerial level. It has nothing to do with the creative or anything else. There’s higher-level things at play… Saw XI may or may not be made, but we have a very timely story in it, and I hope it gets made just because of that,” says Melton. “It taps into the same themes of Saw VI, where you’re a citizen, you feel angry and frustrated with something, you feel like you can’t do anything, and John Kramer’s going to do it.”

He went on to note, “The reason it’s held up is just, there’s inter-squabbling between producers and Lionsgate. They just can’t quite get on the same page.”

Melton’s comments echo a report from earlier in the day at Bloody Disgusting, which cited a source close to the production as saying, “It’s totally dead. It’s 100% over. Almost a year now.”

BD’s source added that things “went sideways in January 2024… the producers started fighting.” They went on to say that one producer tried to push ahead with the film but the other “put up roadblocks,” stifling the production and that Lionsgate “[Lionsgate] didn’t have anyone to smooth over the disagreement…greed and ego won.”

The source added that the franchise may sell elsewhere but that if so it would be likely to “start over.”

Saw XI was announced after 2023’s Saw X proved to be a comeback for the franchise with strong reviews and $125.3 million worldwide against a $13 million budget.,