Sequel Roundup

My last post concerned a couple of older comedies that are unexpectedly getting sequels. The idea that Anchorman and Dumb and Dumber would get sequels ten and twenty years after their debuts seems wild, but progress apparently is being made on both of those films. Neato.

Those aren’t the only films getting sequels though. A whole suite of films have had sequel announcements lately, so here’s a roundup of some of the latest news:

The Woman in Black – Daniel Radcliffe’s first starring role in a post-Harry world was quite a good horror flick (I gave it a 3.5 out of 5). The film was based on a 1983 book by Susan Hill that was later adapted to a successful play that ran in London for over twenty years. Hill and co-writer of The Woman in Black screenplay, Jon Crocker, follow up the story 40 years later with The Woman in Black: Angels of Death. There’s no word regarding a return of Radcliffe in the sequel, but it appears that the film will be set once more in Eel Marsh House. I can imagine that the settings around the manor will be even creepier and more atmospheric in the sequel. Color me excited.

Sin City – Way back in 2005, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller produced a film with a unique visual and narrative style that was pretty rad. Sin City was a popular and critical hit produced on a modest budget that brought in a really big return ($160 return on a $40 million budget). There was almost immediate talk of a sequel, but the project languished for a long time. Part of the holdup was trying to organize the schedules of all the stars involved. Now, Rodriguez has announced Sin City: A Dame to Kill For will begin production in the next few weeks.

Raging Bull – You read that right. For some ungodly reason, a director of mostly direct-to-video films has managed to convince a major motion picture studio to make a follow-up to a classic film that Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro absolutely killed. The story in Raging Bull 2 is supposed to follow the later career of Jake Lamotta, the fighter portrayed by DeNiro in the original. No word on if they are going to try for a tastefully artful black & white film like the original. I hope they try to make it as different as possible from the original, since the odds of capturing that magic again are nigh impossible. Actually, I hope this project simply dies on the vine and never gets made.

X-Men: First Class – We know that there will be a sequel to X-Men: First Class because one of the stars of the film also happens to be the star of another major motion picture franchise. Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Mystique in X-Men: First Class, is also Katniss Everdeen, the star of The Hunger Games. Fox, the studio behind the X-Men films have sent notice to Lionsgate, the studio responsible for the follow-up to The Hunger Games, that Mrs. Lawrence will be needed in January 2013 for shooting on their sequel. That puts Lionsgate in an awkward situation of rushing to get Catching Fire done in the next few months. Jen is one important piece of the X-Men cast, but she unquestionably IS The Hunger Games star. So, we have one major studio forcing a rival studio to rush a sequel into production or else wait until the end of 2013 to start shooting a sequel to the biggest film so far of 2012. Oh Hollywood! It might be wise for Lionsgate to wait Jen Lawrence out though considering…

The Hunger Games – A sequel for this film was all but guaranteed from the start. When the opening weekend numbers shattered all sorts of box office records for Lionsgate, the studio heads were falling all over themselves to greenlight the sequel. They know they have two more gigantic films ahead of them as part of Suzane Collins The Hunger Games trilogy. The second film, Catching Fire, is being forced into a rapid production by Fox studios claims of Jennifer Lawrence as mentioned above. However, there are some serious issues with the production already as the director of The Hunger Games has dropped out. Gary Ross, who championed the idea of adapting the trilogy, has backed out of the director’s chair for the sequel. The reason cited? Rushed production schedule. The writing needs to be finalized and the whole thing needs to be shot by January 2013 when Jenifer Lawrence will be needed over at Fox studios. That’s a quick timeframe, and Ross didn’t want to subject himself to that madness even though he loves the property. Now Lionsgate must find a sucker new director who is willing to take over a major franchise and all of the baggage that goes with it and spit out a movie in just a few months. Good luck!

Are you excited for any of these sequels? Let me know in the comments, and follow me on Twitter!