The HFPA can sleep soundly this year. They may have blacklisted Ricky Gervais, but they helped get one of their favorite movies a sequel.
According to Collider, Jon and Erich Hoeber have been recalled by Summit to write Red 2. It’s not yet green-lit, and there are no deals with the actors or director Robert Schwentke. But the script is being typed.
As sequels go, I suppose you could do worse than Red. It was (and this is not normally a label I’d apply to an action flick) cute. It was a lot fluffier than I expected and hoped it would be, but it was all right. I have to give them credit for actually going out of their way to make a solid and stand alone film, and not one of those lousy cliffhangers or half baked universes that have become the standard. They’re actually going about this the old-fashioned way! Who would have thought?
Perhaps it had something to do with working with older and established talent. In my dreams, Helen Mirren had Summit executives over for tea and explained moviemaking to them. Morgan Freeman was there too. “Now, Batman was always designed to be a series, but each film is crafted in such a way…” John Malkovich, however, was not present.
We’ll keep an eye on this one. If I may offer a tiny suggestion to the Hoebers, it’s that they center this one on Mirren and Brian Cox. I’d like to see a statelier version of From Russia With Love. And then it too can be nominated for a Best Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes.