Sony and Columbia Pictures gambled this year, and it's paid off in spades. Between The Amazing Spider-Man, 21 Jump Street, and Men in Black 3, none of these were a sure thing, with many predicting disaster for them all. Columbia Pictures President, Douglas Belgrad, now has the job of figuring out how to keep the momentum going, and he spoke to THR about the future of all three franchises...
In the case of The Amazing Spider-Man, the film is barrelling towards $600M worldwide, and proving that the right decision was made in hiring Marc Webb to lead the superhero reboot. Plans for a sequel began last year when a 2014 release was announced, and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman coming on board to pen the script. But what about Webb? Is he coming back? Would he even be able to? Doesn't sound like it...
Belgrad: We'd really like him back, but there are obstacles. He has an obligation to Fox.
Webb, who broke out with his directorial debut, (500) Days of Summer, still owes Fox one more film, and it sounds like they're tightening the reins to get him on whatever that may be. It's possible that Sony may go The Hunger Games route, and if they lose Webb may just decide to have different directors helm each installment.
I don't think anybody would have predicted 21 Jump Street would be the beloved box office hit it turned out to be, grossing nearly $200M. Well, scratch that. Sony knew. Which is why they hired Michael Bacall to start writing a sequel script, and Jonah Hill was talking a follow-up days before the film even released. With Channing Tatum a bigger star than ever, Belgrad says production on the sequel will begin sooner than we thought, kicking off in the fall.
How Tatum is going to fit that into his schedule is beyond me. He already has the action flick, White House Down, plus The Wachowski's Jupiter Ascending, and somewhere in there is Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher. Not to mention he's already working on a sequel to Magic Mike, and may voice a character in Lego: The Piece of Resistance. That film, coincidentally, will be directed by 21 Jump Street's Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who aren't confirmed for the sequel just yet.
After the disastrous production leading up to Men in Black 3, the film actually worked out pretty well. While the $175M it took home domestically was pretty good, the $440M foreign haul is insane, and Belgrad says it's more than enough to start thinking sequel...
Belgrad: We're very pleased with the financial performance of 'Men in Black 3,' and we believe it is an ongoing franchise. We're going to do [another one], but we don't have clarity yet on how it should be done.
Whether or not that happens is going to depend on Will Smith, but he seems to be a big fan of the franchise and would likely return if asked. Belgrad also mentioned a possible reboot of Jumanji, reimagined for the present. The original film was a big hit back in 1995, grossing $262M worldwide. Not bad for a silly little film about kids who play the board game and accidentally unleash a bunch of dangers on the real world.
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