Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Sequel Madness


I love that Hollywood plans ahead for years and that the internet dutifully hangs on every corporate decision. There's always an internet flurry of excitement about it... as if we're all purchasing calendars for 2011,2012,2013 and circling dates. We eagerly pretend that we're planning our social calendars around it.

I barely know what I'm doing next week.

That said, I love Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies... so when the teaser poster hit today I did imagine myself lined up on May 6th two years from now, I admit. This despite my feeling that franchises should quit while they're ahead. Q: How do you top Spider-Man 2? A: You don't. You just quit and move on to another project. Even if Hollywood wants to live on a diet of superheroes alone there are still hundreds of them that are awaiting celluloid treatment.

I love superheroes as much as anyone (ok, slightly less I guess... I mean, I won't buy tickets to just anything) but sometimes I wish that Hollywood would get crazier about it and make sequels not just to blockbuster but to interesting movies of all genres.

Wouldn't you kind of like to see a sequel to that trippy indie Primer (the one with the homemade time travelling machine -- remember that)? Or check back in with Emily from The Devil Wears Prada presumably still one stomach flu away from her ideal weight? She was a scream and the film wasn't about her. Emily Blunt is a bigger star now so... why not?

I'd totally be up for a threequel to In the Mood For Love and 2046, wouldn't you? And though I'm positive it's not fashionable to say, I even think it might be cool to check back in on Juno and Paulie at some point to see how they're doing. Most good movies are better left alone but then... there's always Before Sunset to disprove the notion that return trips are unavoidably shallow retreads.
Baby, you are gonna miss that plane.
Damn that movie was great.

But maybe the obstacle to most non-franchise genre properties spawning sequels is that really good movies feel so complete as is... For instance, I feel like I know EXACTLY what happens in the imaginary Vicky Christina New York. It seems so clear to me what that summer in Barcelona did and didn't do for Rebecca Hall and Scarlet Johannson.

P.S.

Vera Drake: Jailbreak !
October 12th, 2012 at theaters everywhere.
Clear your calendars. Pass it on.

22 comments:

MichaelMcl said...

Actually, IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE and 2046 are already part of a threequel. The first part, which featured Maggie in a key role of the same name as MOOD, and Tony in a small familiar part, was DAYS OF BEING WILD.

adelutza said...

You made my evening Nate with Vera Drake sequel :-)

adelutza said...

...and I needed it : I had free passes to The Hangover and I got there late and it was sold out already. Ahhh.

Fabrizzio said...

I'm totally ready for Imelda Staunton to turn into Umbridge, kick some ass, and get out of jail. It's like when I saw Les Miserables (the straight drama) and when Uma Thurman was getting beat up I was like "...hello, Uma! what are you doing? bust out your Hattori Honzo!"

NATHANIEL R said...

Michael. yes i forgot. But isn't it called "unofficial" ;)

Peter Chan said...

I would love to see what a hot mess Cookie Fleck continued to be in 'Best In Show 2: Revenge of Rhapsody In White', but something tells me that's not going to happen anytime soon.

Henry said...

Haha, that'd be a hell of a disaster of a movie: Vicky Cristina New York. Well, maybe all the principals might be more interesting in Woody Allen's natural environs.

The Pretentious Know it All said...

There can't be a sequel to "Juno." It's so entrenched in popular culture, that Juno herself could scarcely avoid referencing it. Then we'd have a Doc Brown Paradox.

Anonymous said...

That Vera Drake sequel was very interesting...

What about...

«Doubt 2: Father Flynn's payback»?

:D

Glenn Dunks said...

I like to imagine if Crash ever got a sequel they'd call it Crash Harder just because it is so absurd.

Wayne B. said...

Wouldn't mind seeing either a "Dazed and Confused" or "Empire Records" reunion-type sequel; in tune with the tone of something like the "Big Chill."

Two specific characters I've always been curious about how their adventures went after their respective movies end are Marty from "Beautiful Girls" and Jack Foley from "Out of Sight."
I always imagined Marty and Willie would end up meeting again someday and a real connection could happen. Jack and Hejirah would make an awesome duo, making trouble, having Sisco tailing them. I think Jack and Sisco belond together. :)

Runs Like A Gay said...

Who wants to see

Rachel Getting Divorced?

Christopher Griffith said...

You know what I was thinking about the other day? Well I will tell you....

Scanning my film collection I came across Election, and was suddenly wondering what ever became of Tracy Flick.

Was she able to become and stay the sucess that the end of the film suggested or did her ambtions crush her in a Sarah Palinesque way, leaving her a fragile shell of the human being she once was?

Hmmm....I ponder.

Jim T said...

Semi-offtopic: Kate Winslet was at a special New York screening of "Away We Go" and there is no photo of her next to Melanie Lynskey!! That's just tragic! And I was hoping for a Heavenly Creatures sequel! (alright I wasn't but I didn't want to be 100% offtopic :p)

NATHANIEL R said...

JIM T... LOL

Shawn said...

I, for one, would love to see Elle Woods run for president. But maybe that's just me.

Iggy said...

I think I'm more open to imaginary sequels like Vicky Cristina New York or All About My Surrogate Mother: Don't Talk to Her, than to remaking/updating: Dangerous Facebook Liaisons, The Laptop Thief.

And anyway what's the time limit for a remake? Will there be a day when a movie failing will be remade just the following year?

NATHANIEL R said...

Iggy. good question. I doubt it will ever come to that because Holywood is so scared to fail (hence the love of sequels) so why would they risk remaking a failure (even though they'd be hte best pics to remake)

Deborah said...

Baby, you are gonna miss that plane.

Damn. One of the best last lines ever.

Iggy said...

Yeah, you're right. I guess I wanted to believe I live in a world where only bad movies (artistic failures) are remade so you can fix them.

If the time span between the original and the remake continues to get shorter and shorter, the alibi for remakes, make stories accesible to new generations, will be no longer valid. By the time the new Total Recall is finished the people who went to multiplexes to see it will presumably still be moviegoers. And that didn't happen some years ago. Who had seen The Thing before it was remade in the 80s? I for myself, only knew about the original Cape Fear when Scorsese's came out... And the list could go on and on.

I guess it could be worse, they haven't found out yet what could be the ultimate thing in squeezing ideas: the "remaquel", remaking a franchise from beginning to the end. From Batman Re-Begins to Raiders of the Still Not Found Ark.

NATHANIEL R said...

IGGY. lol. remaquel. i love it.

Ryan said...

you know, with the disgusting amount of shallow REMAKES in the works/ just opening, i can leave with a few sequels.

re: vera drake. LOL!