Summit Entertainment greenlights sequel to Red

Hot on the heels of last week's news that Summit Entertainment had commissioned Jon and Erich Hoeber(Man on a Ledge) to draft a script for a sequel to Red, the studio issued a press release confirming that the film has been officially greenlit. Well, duh. 

Not much of a surprise given Red's surprising success and the obvious fun the star-studded cast had in making it. Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, and John Malkovich spent bullets like they were goin' out of style in the high octane action flick about a group of retired CIA agents seeking revenge on their former bosses. Red was nominated for a Golden Globe award in the category of Best Musical or Comedy, but lost to The Kids are All Right. Red went on to gross over $160M globally, with the DVD just hitting store shelves on January 25th.

Notable in the press release is the statement that no deal has currently been worked out with any of the film's major stars, but they wouldn't proceed forward without them, would they? I mean you can't just throw any old folks in there, otherwise it'll turn into....The Crew or something. Nobody wants that. Expect Willis and Co. to be back. Not so sure about director Robert Schwentke, though. Check out the press release below.

Summit Pulls the Trigger on ‘RED’ Sequel

A sequel to RED is on.  Summit has hired brothers Erich and Jon Hoeber, who wrote the script for the hit action movie, to return to the keyboard to pen a second instalment.   Although there are no confirmed deals at this stage with the original film’s stars Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Summit is pulling the trigger for a second helping of over-the-hill special ops agents shoot-’em-up.

The movie, with a budget in the $60 million range, opened to $21 million in October and proved to have staying power, crossing the $90 million mark.  It has made more than four times its opening, a rare feat in box-office performance. The movie also was nominated for Best Picture in the Comedy / Musical category at this year’s Golden Globe Awards.

In addition to writing Red, Erich and Jon Hoeber worked on Battleship, Universal’s big-budget adaptation of the Hasbro board game, and then came back to Summit to work on its Sam Worthington thriller Man on a Ledge.   Ledge is currently shooting in New York.

RED is based on the cult D.C. Comics graphic novels by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamne, and is an explosive action comedy about a team of Retired and Extremely Dangerous CIA Operatives. The film released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on 14 February from Entertainment One.