Sequel Bits: 'Toy Story 4,' 'Kill Bill Vol. 3,' 'XXX 3,' 'Zoolander 2', 'Fuller House'
Welcome back to Sequel Bits, that regular feature that's all about sequels. And their bits. In today's edition:
Quentin Tarantino first teased a Kill Bill Vol. 3 in the months after Kill Bill Vol. 2 premiered in 2003. Back then, he suggested that the third film would follow the daughter of Vernita Green as she undergoes training from Julie Dreyfus' Sofia Fatale to enact revenge on Uma Thurman's Beatrix Kiddo. He also said that since the sequel would take place many years later, it could only be made many years later. Well, it's now many years later and Tarantino says that yes, a third film is still a possibility:
There's definitely a possibility — stop short of saying a probability. I put the character Beatrix Kiddo through a lot, and so I wanted her to have this much time for peace. I wanted her to have some time with her daughter and not have to be in the genre machine.
He doesn't mention the plot details he first brought up over a decade ago. If a third film does happen, it could be completely different. You never know what the hell Tarantino is thinking or planning or doing, which is why all of his movies always feel like such pleasant surprises.
We already knew that national treasure Tom Hanks has begun recording new dialogue for Toy Story 4, but the man who is Woody took to Twitter to re-confirm this for everyone. Pixar's latest entry in their flagship series isn't due in theaters until June 15, 2018, but the process of making any animated film is long and complicated and will probably require Mr. Hanks to make more than several drives out to Pixar HQ as his dialogue gets adjusted and re-adjusted over the next two and a half years. Anyway, Hanks recently made one of those drives and decided to chronicle it on social media.
Back to Oakland! Pixar! Working on #ToyStory4, partners! Hanx https://t.co/JdzZA1Esli
— Tom Hanks (@tomhanks) December 2, 2015
Back in 2000, Lindsay Lohan and Tyra Banks starred in the Disney Channel movie Life-Size, which followed a young girl who accidentally brought a doll to life with a magic spell. Hijinks ensued, naturally. Now, 15 years later, Banks (whose reality competition series America's Next Top Model ends this week) is returning for the sequel. Speaking with Variety, Banks said:
I think it will be 2016. We're looking at it as a holiday movie so hopefully holiday 2016. One thing is it's a very precious project to the Disney Channel so they've been doing a lot of re-writes and making sure that this script is really right. I'm really excited about it. I think 'Life-Size' is so popular that it can be a feature film because it has such a cult following, so I'm really interested to see what the ratings are going to do for that. I think it's going to be a blockbuster on TV.
Lohan is currently not involved in the project, but given the current state of her career, that's kind of a given.
Speaking of belated sequels, The Wrap reports that the upcoming Full House sequel series, Fuller House, will explain away the absence of Michelle Tanner by saying she's gone off to New York City to star a fashion empire. This is a self-referential joke, as Mary Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen (the twins who played Michelle on the original series) now run their own successful fashion lines. While they won't actually appear on screen, Netflix has confirmed that they will be referenced (and even prank-called) during the first season's 13 episodes.
When Justin Theroux isn't weeping and questioning the universe (often while naked) on HBO's The Leftovers, he's writing broad comedies that seem to get people really riled up. He was recently asked to respond to accusations that the trailers for Zoolander 2, which feature an androgynous model named "All" played by Benedict Cumberbatch, was transphobic. Theroux was pretty upfront with his response:
I don't even know what to make of it, because it hurts my feelings in a way. I take great care in the jokes I write, and the umbrage being taken is out of the context of the scene. I wish people would see the movie first. Satire is a thing that points out the idiots, and we went through it on 'Tropic Thunder' with the 'R' word.
As he implies, this isn't the first time he's scripted a movie that was pre-judged like this prior to release. The use of the word "retard" in Tropic Thunder created a similar outcry, although the use of the word (and its satiric intent) became clear when seen in the context of the film. Theroux seems apologetic, but he also implies that this character won't be offensive when seen in the final film:
The goal was not to mock or be cruel to the mentally challenged, but exalt in the stupidity of people who use that word. I'm all for letting words be ugly when the target is correct. With social media and all the rest of it, people's issues need to be heard ... at the end of the day people are looking for bandwidth. People are looking for places to inject their voice. But our target is not, and never was, to disenfranchise anyone.
The XXX series sputtered out quickly, with Vin Diesel abandoning the extreme sports/international espionage series after the first film. A sequel, which starred Ice Cube of all people, only made $71 million worldwide, a fraction of the original's $277 million. And while his character was killed off between movies (in a DVD special feature, of all things), Diesel is bringing the character back from the dead for XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, a film that will may co-star Bollywood's Deepika Padukone. At least that's the indication, since she's been posing with unknown bald men in front of the XXX logo on her social media.
The original Super Troopers didn't even leave a dent at the theatrical box office, but Broken Lizard's silly cop comedy became a sensation on home video. Considering the original film's passionate fanbase, it wasn't surprising to see the sequel light the world of crowdfunding on fire, taking its $2 million budget straight out of the hands of the fans. While Super Troopers 2 doesn't have a release date yet, it does have a new batch of images from the set, showing off director/co-writer/actor Jay Chandrasekhar. The release of these new photos isn't a coincidence, as Chandrasekhar has a new memoir, titled Mustache Shenanigans, out sometime next year.
