Jaume Collet-Serra is set to direct a reboot of Sylvester Stallone’s classic 1993 action thriller Cliffhanger, as the follow-up project to his latest movie The Woman in the Yard. Collet-Serra’s psychological horror movie, released at the end of March 2025, hasn’t done too well with critics so far. Even so, the director’s Cliffhanger reboot is a different prospect altogether, and he’s already proven his talent when it comes to directing this type of movie.
The Woman in the Yard has a 43% score on Rotten Tomatoes due to its largely negative critical reviews so far, which is perhaps symptomatic of the fact that horror movies aren’t Jaume Collet-Serra’s strong suit. Flying in the face of its perfectly sinister premise, Collet Serra’s latest film isn’t actually all that scary, despite its connection to his 2024 Netflix hit Carry-On. On the other hand, he has an excellent track record in terms of his action thriller output, which should come as a relief to fans of Cliffhanger.
Jaume Collet-Serra Is Directing A Cliffhanger Reboot After The Woman In The Yard
The Reboot Will Star Lily James And Pierce Brosnan In Lead Roles
Spanish-American director Jaume Collet-Serra’s 13th feature film at the helm will be a remake of the Sylvester Stallone movie Cliffhanger in some form, although the details of the reboot haven’t yet been confirmed. Stallone himself was originally on board the project when it was touted as a sequel to the first movie. But the Cliffhanger reboot has since undergone a creative overhaul, and will no longer be a continuation of the Cliffhanger narrative starring Stallone himself.
Most of the cast for the movie has now been announced, with Lily James topping the bill as Naomi Cooper, and Pierce Brosnan continuing his late-career renaissance in the role of Naomi’s father, Ray. These names don’t appear in the previous Cliffhanger movie at all, suggesting that it’s going to involve entirely different characters in a completely different story.
Jaume Collet-Serra’s new rendering of Cliffhanger has been scripted by Ana Lily Amirpour, who has received widespread praise for two out of her three feature films released to this point, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon. So the project is well-placed to do better with critics than The Woman in the Yard, which is far from Collet-Serra’s strongest work.
Jaume Collet-Serra Is Better With Action Movies Than He Is With Horror
His 2024 Netflix Hit Carry-On Should Be A Reference Point For Cliffhanger
Before watching The Woman in the Yard, it’s worth going through some of Jaume Collet-Serra’s other works to gauge an idea of what to expect from the movie. Watching his previous feature-length releases, he has found more success directing action and adventure films than in the horror genre. Although Collet-Serra’s career as a director began with the horror movies House of Wax and Orphan, it came into its own with the 2011 Liam Neeson action thriller Unknown. However, it would be another 13 years before he’d produce a work worthy of mᴀss acclaim.
In 2024, Jaume Collet-Serra had his first major success story with Carry-On, an action thriller that shares similarities in plot and style with the original version of Cliffhanger. The movie focuses on an airport security officer who’s become disillusioned with his work after being blamed for a failing, which is not unlike the relationship Sylvester Stallone’s character Gabe Walker has with the mountain rescue service in the previous iteration of Collet-Serra’s next movie.
Carry-On was one of Netflix’s biggest movies in the year of its release and has received plaudits from most critics for its commitment to the action genre. It’s this movie most of all that gives a reason to be optimistic about the Cliffhanger reboot.
I Believe Jaume Collet-Serra’s Cliffhanger Movie Will Be A Lot Better Than The Woman In The Yard
Collet-Serra’s Next Movie Will Be Very Different From His Current One
Jaume Collet-Serra’s latest movie has rightly had its detractors since its release, but reviews of The Woman in the Yard don’t mean all that much for the Cliffhanger reboot. The two movies have wholly different intentions behind them, and the new Cliffhanger should have far more in common with Carry-On’s wild action scenes than The Woman in the Yard’s hit-and-miss attempts to unsettle its audience.
It isn’t fair to prejudge Collet-Serra’s Cliffhanger based on The Woman in the Yard, whereas Carry-on is a suitable starting point for our expectations of this remake.
In addition, The Woman in the Yard couldn’t be more different as a project from the remake of Cliffhanger. The former is a low-budget, minimalist horror movie from Blumhouse, whereas the latter is a major action reboot featuring major A-listers in its cast list. It isn’t fair to prejudge Collet-Serra’s Cliffhanger based on The Woman in the Yard, whereas Carry-on is a suitable starting point for our expectations of this remake. In light of how good the director’s last action thriller was, his Cliffhanger remake could give the original a run for its money.
