The next installment of Final Destination has found its death dealer.

Belgian filmmaker Michiel Blanchart is the choice to direct New Lines follow-up to Final Destination: Bloodlines.

Sources say there is no offer just yet, but Blanchart, who will be making his English-language debut with the feature, bubbled to the top this week after a brief but intense search.

Hollywood has been waiting to see who would direct the next installment after Bloodlines opened No. 1 globally, achieving the best opening weekend in the six-film series to become the highest-grossing entry in the 25-year-oldFinal Destinationfranchise.Released in May, the movie grossed over $314.6 million at the worldwide box office, $138.1 million of that domestically. (And it has yet to open in Japan.) Zach LipovskyandAdam Stein directed the film but opted not to return.

Lori Evans Taylor, who wroteBloodlinesalong with Gary Busick, is penning the new script.

Destinationfranchise producer and steward Craig Perry and franchise veteran Sheila Hanahan Taylor are back producing, as are Jon Watts and his wife, Dianne McGunigle, along with Toby Emmerich.Warren Zide is exec producing.

Destinationwas a surprise hit franchise for New Line in the early 2000s, with a concept that proved easy to transfer from movie to movie, locale to locale, victim to unwitting victim. Each movie centered on a character who has a premonition of a horrific and deadly event. They cheat his or her own death and save several other lives in the process, only to have Death, personified as an unstoppable force of nature, come for the survivors one by one. TheFinal Destinationfranchise has earned over $1 billion worldwide, making it New Lines third-biggest horror franchise behind the over $2.73 billion grossed bythe ConjuringUniverse and the $1.2 billion generated by theItfilms.

Despite only one feature credit to his name, Blanchart is no neophyte. His short Youre Dead, Hlne (Tes morte, Hlne) was shortlisted in the best live-action short film category at the 2023 Oscars. It told of a man trying to break up with his girlfriend, who happens to be a ghost and not at all happy to be dumped. Its now set up for an English-language adaptation at Tri-Star with Sam Raimi producing.

Blanchart made his feature debut with Night Call (Le nuit se traine), a 2024 action crime thriller that gained strong notices not only for its Collateral-like genre thriller but also encompassing timely social commentary. The movie swept the Belgian version of the Academy Awards, the Magritte Awards, earlier this year, winning 10 out of 11 nominations. Blanchart walked away with best film, best first feature film, best screenplay and best director statues.

He is repped by WME and Ithaka Media.