Welcome back to Sequel Bits, the round-up of anything and everything sequel-related. In today’s edition:
- The stars of Hocus Pocus 2 joke around about a sequel.
- The star of The Goonies ponders a follow-up.
- Sam Raimi offers an update on that Evil Dead crossover.
- Jurassic World continues to make insane money at home.
- And a whole bunch of Spectre updates.
Rumors of a Hocus Pocus 2 have been flying around the internet for ages now and Disney is most definitely testing the waters. Why else would they be hosting Hocus Pocus-themed Halloween events at their theme parks if they weren’t giving this some serious consideration? Anyway, original star Bette Midler took to Twitter to explain the real reason why a sequel has yet to emerge from development hell:
.@kathynajimy .@SJP Breaking news!! SEQUEL DELAYED!! @Disney having trouble finding a virgin! #HocusPocus pic.twitter.com/dYnJv7lyNQ
— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) October 26, 2015
Of course, her co-star Kathy Najimy had to chime in, bringing Middler’s frequent musical collaborator Marc Shaiman into the mix:
Stop spreading bogus rumors @BetteMidler we both know @marcshaiman is a virgin ???? @SJP @Disney see u @craftservice https://t.co/G5M4cIi6d6
— kathy najimy (@kathynajimy) October 27, 2015
Speaking of nostalgic favorites having trouble getting a sequel off the ground, the never-ending chatter about a Goonies 2 continued when Yahoo Movies spoke to one of the film’s original stars, Sean Astin. Although he may not be privy to the exact reasons why this project has struggled to materialize, his reasoning for why it hasn’t makes a certain amount of sense:
They have lots of ideas and they’ve been developing in different ways, but I just don’t think they’ve arrived at what they think the best option is. I wish they’d just break the logjam, because it’s so popular, they could probably do a cartoon and a Broadway show and other versions of movies. I think they’re just holding on too tight…. It’s an older movie now, but the fun of it is so magical, and I think the reason they haven’t made it yet is they want to keep that same magic.
People don’t want to resurrect a beloved movie because they’re worried about tarnishing its legacy? Hmm, what a novel line of thinking.
Fans were divided on the 2013 version of Evil Dead, which ditched much of the series’ trademark comedy for a back-to-the-basics horror story, but everyone seemed interested in this new universe possible crossing over with the original characters. And it could have happened, too… if the new Starz series Ash vs. Evil Dead hadn’t come along and distracted everyone:
That’s something that I said I wanted to see. And I talked to Fede Alvarez, the director of the Evil Dead remake, and even said it at Comic-Con. But the reality is, once you’ve got these showrunners and writers working on this juggernaut, trying to figure out where the season’s going to go, it’s very hard to simultaneously write a combo movie that would fit in with where the series is going to end up at that particular point, and it really would have to coalesce with what the writers are doing in the writers’ room. So even though I said it, realistically, I don’t know how we’d be able to pull it off at this particular moment.
It’s hard to feel too bad about losing that crossover when we got a proper Evil Dead sequel series instead.
Jurassic World was already the highest grossing film of 2015 and the third highest grossing film of all time with an international haul of $1.6 billion. Then it hit home video and the money really started to pour in. According to a press release from Universal (via CinemaBlend), the film has already made $82 million from Blu-ray, DVD, and digital downloads alone… and it’s only been out since last Tuesday. There was already a sequel planned for 2018, but if there wasn’t, we’d be seeing an announcement right now.
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The post Sequel Bits: ‘Spectre,’ ‘Hocus Pocus 2,’ ‘The Goonies 2′ and ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2′ appeared first on /Film.