How a bloody Zoom pitch helped Vancouver filmmaker take ‘Final Destination’ reins

"Final Destination: Bloodlines" directors Zach Lipovsky, front right, and Adam B. Stein, front left, are shown in this handout photo provided by Warner Bros. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Warner Bros-Eric Milner *MANDATORY CREDIT *

Vancouver filmmaker Zachary Lipovsky says it took innovative thinking — and a fake decapitation — to land the job directing “Final Destination: Bloodlines.”

The supernatural horror film, in theatres Friday, is the sixth in the long-running franchise about people who narrowly escape death only to be hunted down by fate through elaborate, gruesome accidents.

Lipovsky and co-director Adam B. Stein say they essentially had to audition for the job and turned their Zoom pitch to Warner Bros. execs into a perfectly choreographed, blood-soaked spectacle.

“As we were pitching, the back fireplace in our room started to light the back wall on fire, and then we got up and started running around screaming,” Lipovsky recalls on a virtual call from Vancouver.

They doused the faux flames with a fire extinguisher and aired out the room, but weren’t in the clear yet.

“Suddenly the ceiling fan came loose and I jumped out of the way and it fell and chopped Adam’s head off and blood went spraying everywhere,” says Lipovsky.

“And then we were like, ‘Any questions about our pitch?’”

The carnage was staged using a mix of pre-recorded footage and practical effects — just enough to rattle the execs before winning them over.

Lipovsky says it’s been incredible to join a franchise with “a long legacy” in Vancouver, noting all but one of the “Final Destination” films were shot in his hometown and many involved his actor friends.

“I have a lot of friends who’ve died in the previous movies and a lot of the disasters take place in different parts of the city,” he says.

“There’s a very homegrown feeling to it. …It’s been really cool to make this big studio-feeling movie, but still have its roots in the city that’s been part of the franchise for so long, and to just shoot it in your backyard.”

In “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” Langley, B.C.’s Kaitlyn Santa Juana stars as Stefani, a college student who inherits a decades-old premonition from her grandma and must save her family as death begins picking them off one by one.

The film opens in the 1960s when disaster strikes Skyview Tower, a fictional 120-metre-tall structure topped by a rooftop restaurant. Its base was filmed at Vancouver’s Planetarium, which helped shape the tower’s retro-futuristic look. The rest was brought to life through visual effects and custom-built sets for the film’s first catastrophic set piece.

The directors say the sequence sets a world record for the “oldest person set on fire” on screen, with 71-year-old former stuntwoman Yvette Ferguson coming out of retirement to be engulfed in flames.

“She comes from a long family of stunt people and she said, ‘Everyone in my family’s been on fire except for me! I’m so excited I finally get to do a burn!’” recalls Stein, who’s from Florida.

Since its 2000 debut, “Final Destination” has become a cult hit and box office success, earning more than US$650 million globally on the strength of its killer premise: you can’t cheat death. The last instalment was 2011’s “Final Destination 5.”

Publicity for the new edition has involved gory installations, including a half-finished “Final Destination” billboard featuring two bodies hanging, as if death struck the workers mid-job. Another stunt that hit Canadian highways last week involves a log truck made to look like it’s splattered in blood, a nod to 2003’s “Final Destination 2,” in which a premonition about logs flying off a flatbed sparks a deadly highway pileup.

Lipovsky and Stein say they initially questioned the need for another entry in 2025, but their doubts faded after reading a compelling new treatment by “Spider-Man: No Way Home” director Jon Watts.

They were also drawn to the story’s family-driven emotional core, which echoed their 2018 sci-fi thriller “Freaks,” which followed a girl who uncovers dark secrets about her past and those closest to her.

“We love stories that really hook you by the heart while also having great suspense and horror,” says Stein.

The duo met as contestants on the 2007 Fox reality show “On the Lot,” where filmmakers competed for a DreamWorks development deal.

“We just instantly really became close friends and collaborators,” says Lipovsky, noting they also co-directed the Disney Channel action comedy “Kim Possible” in 2019.

The filmmakers say “Final Destination” has made them overly aware of how everyday moments can spiral into disaster.

Lipovsky now avoids the SkyTrain grate outside his building.

“I can’t have the headline: ‘Final Destination’ filmmaker dies falling through subway grate,’” he says.

“Everywhere you go, you now see death,” laughs Stein.

This report by Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press, was first published May 12, 2025.