Fresh off the impressive success of
The Shack, the hit film based on the best-selling novel by William P. Young, studio Lionsgate is partnering with PureFlix Entertainment to bring audiences a powerful follow-up, The Shed.
When a young girl with no name, neglected by the caretakers in the institution she's been kept prisoner in since birth, escapes into the dark alleys of New York City, she comes across what appears to be an abandoned toolshed.
What she finds instead is an encounter with the divine as God speaks to her through each of the tools in the Shed, giving her life lessons as well as a warning about the impending apocalypse.
Starring Relient K's Matt Thiessen as "The Mechanic" and rising star Millie Bobbie Brown of
Stranger Things as "The Girl," the film is set to break records when it opens at Thanksgiving.
Lionsgate President Peter Strauss told reporters, "Usually a sequel is made a year or two after the release of the initial film. But we wanted to capitalize on the momentum of The Shack and rush release this movie just in time to go head to head with the new
Star Wars film. We think we have a strong chance of beating it on opening weekend because audiences are hungry for an alternative from the typical Hollywood blockbuster."
Also starring in the film will be Kirk Cameron as himself and Joseph Rojas of Seventh Day Slumber as an outspoken Internet blogger out to bust open the conspiracy behind the shadowy institution.
Thiessen will score the sequel and contribute the title track of the film, "The Shed," featuring banjo synths laid over a hip-hop beat.
For her part, Brown will juggle filming season 2 of the Netflix hit
Stranger Things and
The Shed. Brown told reporters, "I'll always have a soft spot for playing Eleven but I don't want to get pigeonholed into playing a certain type of character. So I jumped at the chance to take on a role that was absolutely nothing like Eleven other than the backstory of being nonverbal preteen who escapes a mysterious institution."
The Shack grossed $50 million on a shoestring budget. The studio is banking on
The Shed to do even bigger numbers. The showdown with
Star Wars: The Last Jedi begins December 15.
