(L-r) Writer/Director Zach Cregger and Julia Garner on the set of New Line Cinema's "Weapons," a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Quantrell Colbert/Warner Bros. Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text [This story contains spoilers for Weapons.] Zach Cregger was far from home throughout Weapons' storybook run this past summer. The writer-director was 6,000 miles away in Prague, prepping his next film, Resident Evil, which found itself in a hard-fought bidding war just like Weapons did in 2023. When the dust settled on New Line/Warners' $38 million purchase of the latter, the betterment of its highly in-demand script was only just beginning. A reference to a tray of hot dogs and assorted junk food became a tray of seven hot dogs, which served as a touching, esoteric tribute to Cregger's late dear friend and longtime The Whitest Kids U' Know collaborator, Trevor Moore. The mere act of writing Weapons began as a way for Cregger to process Moore's August 2021 death. Related Stories Movies 'Barbarian' Producers BoulderLight Pictures to Launch Paramount Genre Label After New Line Deal Expires Movies Paul Walter Hauser Joins Austin Abrams in Zach Cregger's 'Resident Evil' Reboot Other improvements were made such as a scene in which Josh Brolin's Archer takes ownership of his grief-stricken blunders at one of his company's construction sites. Originally, the script had him lash out at his foreman for mistakes made by their crew. Character names were also changed so there weren't at least four people with capital-A first names. But perhaps the most consequential revisions happened during Alex Lilly's (Cary Christopher) chapter of the nonlinear narrative. The young boy was the only third grader in Justine Gandy's (Julia Garner) class to not run away from home in the wee hours of the morning before a school day, and it's eventually revealed that he contributed to the disappearance of his 17 fellow classmates. But this wasn't always the case. When Alex's mysterious Great Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan) comes to stay with him and his parents under the pretext of her deteriorating health, he returns home from school one day to find his parents in a catatonic state. Gladys is actually an ailing witch who cast a spell in order to drain them of their life force and reinvigorate herself in the process. However, Gladys' recovery is short-lived. So she asks Alex to retrieve personal effects from his 17 classmates, and Alex, not realizing the full extent of Gladys' forthcoming design, agrees to help based on her promise that she'll leave him and his parents alone afterwards. In early versions of the script, Alex actually played no part in Gladys' second spell that brought the 17 schoolkids to his doorstep so that Gladys could try once more to fully recuperate. Instead of stealing cubby-hole box name tags from his classroom, Alex received Valentine's Day cards from each one of his classmates. Gladys then pocketed those items in the middle of night to cast the fateful spell. Cregger later received a note from one of his friends that suggested the idea of directly involving Alex in Gladys' spell. Thus, having Alex snatch the name tags not only made him more active in hopefully rescuing his parents, but it also reinforced his rationale for not telling the truth to law enforcement. "Bill Hader is a buddy of mine. We would talk about the script, and I think it was his idea. He was like, 'You should figure out a way to implicate [Alex] so he feels implicated.' So it was through a conversation with him that I had the idea of Alex stealing something [for Gladys]," Cregger tells The Hollywood Reporter. "It was a way to give him some culpability so that we could further believe that maybe he wouldn't tell [the authorities], because he felt like he was responsible and just as guilty [as Gladys], even though we know he wasn't. But, to a degree, he is guilty." Below, during a recent spoiler conversation with THR, Cregger also discusses the practical reason for why he did away with Alex's Valentine's Day cards, as well as the current status of his Aunt Gladys prequel. *** Weapons received rave reviews and was the number-one movie in August, grossing $264 million against $38 million overall. Its script was a part of a hotly contested bidding war that may have altered a couple careers. [Editor's Note: Jordan Peele reportedly parted ways with his managers after losing the Weapons sweepstakes.] Your follow-up, Resident Evil, also had its own bidding war. How does it feel to be the belle of the ball right now? (Laughs.) I'm in Prague, and I've been in Prague since before Weapons came out, so I don't feel like the belle of the ball. I feel like a stranger in a strange land, and I'm so happy to be here. I get to work every day toward making a movie [Resident Evil], so it's aweso