Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick's 'A Simple Favor' Sequel Slated to Begin Production in Italy This Fall: Source

Paul Feig is back in the director's chair and most, if not all, of the supporting cast from the first film will return, a source tells PEOPLE

Blake Lively, Paul Feig, Anna Kendrick
From left: Blake Lively, Paul Feig, Anna Kendrick. Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty, Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty, John Lamparski/Getty

The sequel to A Simple Favor is in advanced negotiations to begin production this fall, PEOPLE has learned from a source.

The Amazon Studios and Lionsgate picture, a follow-up to the popular 2018 dark comedy–thriller starring Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick, will be set in Capri, Italy for the duo's new twisted game of deceit.

Paul Feig is back in the director's chair and most, if not all, of the supporting cast from the first film will return, the source tells PEOPLE.

Feig, 60, will also produce the film under his Feigco Entertainment banner alongside Laura Fischer, while Jessica Sharzer — who also wrote the first movie — penned the script.

Amazon Studios could not be reached for comment.

A Simple Favor also starred Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Linda Cardellini, Dustin Milligan and Jean Smart. The film, which made more than $97 million at the global box office on an estimated $20 million budget, is an adaptation of a 2017 book of the same name by Darcey Bell, in which a woman named Emily Nelson (Lively) mysteriously vanishes.

Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick in A Simple Favor
Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick in A Simple Favor (2018). Courtesy Lionsgate

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The film stars Kendrick, 37, as Stephanie, a mommy vlogger who attempts to figure out why and how her best friend Emily goes missing. In the process, she discovers Emily isn't exactly who she said she was.

"I've actually read the script now," Kendrick told Courtney Lopez on the Jan. 17 episode of E! News of the sequel, "and it's so good."

The actress told Lopez her character's "got like a little bit more savvy in her," but added that "she's still Stephanie at the end of the day."

Blake Lively Posts Sultry Dark-Haired Selfie As It's Revealed She'll Star in It Starts with Us
Blake Lively. blake lively/instagram; getty

In additional Lively news, on Thursday, the 35-year-old actress debuted a new hair color on her Instagram Story, trading in her blonde for brunette amid her latest role announcement in It Ends with Us.

The Gossip Girl alum is set to star opposite Jane the Virgin star Justin Baldoni, 39, in the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's bestselling novel.

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