How similar to the original should a sequel be?
This question answered and more in my review of The Hangover Part II, coming tomorrow evening (probably).
[Spoiler alert: It’s going to be just like my Hangover review, only with slightly exaggerated stakes.]
I’d love to hear some thoughts on the above question though.
Box Office Mojo did some counting and found that 27 sequels are scheduled to be released this year.
The second movies are Cars 2, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules, The Hangover Part II, Happy Feet 2, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil, Johnny English Reborn, Kung Fu Panda 2, Piranha 3DD and Sherlock Holmes: The Book of Shadows.
The third movies are Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son, Madea’s Big Happy Family, Paranormal Activity 3 and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
The fourth movies are Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Scream 4, Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part One).
The fifth movies are Fast Five, Final Destination 5, Puss in Boots, X-Men: First Class and Winnie the Pooh.
The seventh movies are The Muppets and Rise of the Apes.
And the eighth movie is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two.
Mojo is also quick to point out that they didn’t count New Year’s Eve or The Thing, which are sort of a sequel and a prequel, but I guess not officially. (However, it sort of evens out because they’re counting films like Puss in Boots and Winnie the Pooh which feel like tangential sequels at best.)
None will be as good as Inception. (Except maybe Harry Potter or The Muppets, hopefully).
James Cameron tells EW that his two Avatar sequels will be released around Christmas of 2014 and 2015. We just blue ourselves.
The report comes from an unknown source within a Q&A session being held by Keanu Reeves at the London International School of Performing Arts. Reeves said he met with the Wachowskis over Christmas and was told there is a treatment for 2 more films within The Matrix universe.
Take this as a huge rumor with very little credibility right now.
If someone was going to exploit the library for sequels, remakes, TV, I’d rather it be the devil I know. Nice to know there’s a home for Clerks III if I ever wanted to make it, but hope it doesn’t become a home for a Clerks-anything if I’m not involved. Either way, I doubt my shit is even something they wanna re-do/remake. [Miramax owns] Clerks, Chasing Amy, Jersey Girl and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. But then it’s further complicated by the Jay & Silent Bob of it all. They don’t own Jay & Silent Bob; I do. They own Strike Back, but they can’t make any flick that’d include Jay & Silent Bob (even a Strike Back sequel) without my permission/license. The only flick they own free & clear of me with no ties whatsoever, is Jersey Girl. And from personal experience, there’s little to no interest in a sequel or remake, unless it opens with JLo’s dead Mom busting out of her earthen grave, trampling her only begotten daughter’s copy of a Necronomicon as she eats her brains. If they wanna do THAT Jersey Girl sequel, I’m totally in.
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| — | Kevin Smith Responds to Miramax Sequel Plans | Film School Rejects |
From Cinematical…
Miramax and The Weinstein Co. have announced plans to team up on producing sequels to many of Miramax’s biggest films. Obviously we’re already seeing the beginnings of this with the upcoming ‘Scream 4’ and ‘Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World’, but now we can add a whole bunch more sequels to that mix, including ‘Bad Santa’ (which Billy Bob Thornton talked up recently), ’Rounders’ and ‘Shakespeare in Love’.
That’s not all, though, as the recently-released press release — which also mentions the fact that some (or most) of these could be direct-to-video — lists a few more films under consideration, like ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’, ’Swingers’,‘From Dusk Till Dawn’, ‘Shall We Dance’, ’The Amityville Horror’, ‘Clerks’ (which already has a sequel, though Kevin Smith has teased a potential third installment revisiting these same characters in their 40s) and seemingly the most random choice, ‘Copland’.
“‘Kung Fu Panda’ actually has 6 chapters to it, and we’ve mapped that out over the years,” Katzenberg said. “‘How To Train Your Dragon’ is at least three: maybe more, but we know there are a least three chapters to that story.”
Someone needs to teach Dreamworks the definition of overkill.
Though I do love How To Train Your Dragon and will probably see all the sequels.
Just one fun one today, guys. Courtesy of my PopEater compadre Jett Wells.
Shameful, Hollywood. I’m pretty sure some of these may have actually come out in theaters as well.
James Cameron has locked in a deal with Fox to make Avatar 2 and 3, due in theaters December 2014 and December 2015 respectively.
Said the director in a statement, “It is a rare and remarkable opportunity when a filmmaker gets to build a fantasy world, and watch it grow, with the resources and partnership of a global media company. AVATAR was conceived as an epic work of fantasy – a world that audiences could visit, across all media platforms, and this moment marks the launch of the next phase of that world. With two new films on the drawing boards, my company and I are embarking on an epic journey with our partners at Twentieth Century Fox. Our goal is to meet and exceed the global audience’s expectations for the richness of AVATAR’s visual world and the power of the storytelling. In the second and third films, which will be self contained stories that also fulfill a greater story arc, we will not back off the throttle of AVATAR’s visual and emotional horsepower, and will continue to explore its themes and characters, which touched the hearts of audiences in all cultures around the world. I’m looking forward to returning to Pandora, a world where our imaginations can run wild.”
The sequels will be produced by Cameron and Jon Landau for Lightstorm Entertainment.
Here’s hoping these are more like Empire Strikes Back and less like The Matrix sequels. Also they should spread out the releases of two and three.
Notable for its correct quotation of “No, I am your father,” and for agreeing with me that Vol. II is the better of the Kill Bills.
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I mostly agree with this list with the movies I’ve seen, except Kill Bill, sorry Alex!
Can Kill Bill Vol 2 really be considered a sequel when the two parts were supposed to be one movie anyway?
