The fourth installment to the popular "The Purge" franchise will not hit theaters until 2018, but creator James DeMonaco has admitted that he has already got an official title for it.
The next installment will be called "The Purge: The Island" and would serve as a prequel to the popular trilogy. In particular, the film will take viewers back to the beginning and will show how the Purge night started.
According to DeMonaco, the Purge night actually started as an experiment on Staten Island back in the early 2000s. At the time, the poorest residents are being paid to stick around and kill one another while the more well-off individuals hightail to Brooklyn.
"It becomes a monetization of murder and violence, incentivizing killing and keeping people around for them to be victims," said DeMonaco in an interview with Vulture. "So you see the inception of how grotesque the idea of the Purge is, the manipulation upon the society," he added.
As viewers may recall, the annual Purge night is a 12-hour time period where all illegal acts – including homicide, assault, and robbery – are decriminalized. Also, all police, fire, and medical emergency services are suspended during this time.
Despite the dark premise though, "The Purge: The Island" is said to be the most crowd-pleasing among the installments. Also, viewers can expect an anti-hero character that was inspired by Clint Eastwood's William "Will" Munny in 1992's "Unforgiven."
Even though there is no word yet on who will star, "The Purge: The Island" is set to start production later this month. Gerard McMurray ('Burning Sands,' 'Battle Buddy' and 'Underground') will sit in the director's chair, while Sebastien Lemercier, Andrew Form, Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions will serve as producers.
"The Purge: The Island" is intended to be released on July 4, 2018.
