Sequel Bits: 'Wreck-It Ralph 2', 'Insidious Chapter 2', 'Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes', 'Jurassic Park 4', 'Sin City: A Dame To Kill For', 'A Good Day To Die Hard', And More

If Sequel Bits has a mascot, it's gotta be Bruce Willis. Guy has four sequels due out this year, and in this edition he talks about two of them, A Good Day to Die Hard and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. Also after the jump:

It was so different from other video games that had 2D animation in it. It was just very unique at that time, and it had things that I loved about both animation and video games within it. It really rekindled my love of 2D animation at just the right time, as a teenager. I really wanted that character in Wreck-It Ralph, but the legal red tape made it pretty impossible to get the rights to him. But it would be great to try and get that character freed up for a sequel, should there be one.

But his wishlist isn't limited to classic games.

I don't exactly know how we could work it in, you know, things like Angry Birds and the With Friends games — only because I love playing them. It just seems like it would be great to work in a story about those types of games that are so prevalent and contemporary and part of today's culture. I would love to somehow work that into a sequel.

Other names Moore has mentioned in the past include Tron and Mario. And we thought the original was stuffed with cameos. [Collider]

With production already underway, director James Wan is making a couple of last-minute additions to Insidious Chapter 2. Danielle Bisutti has signed on to join Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Ty Simpkins, and Jocelin Donahue in the horror sequel. Details on her character remain vague, but we know she'll be named "Michelle."

And also getting in on the action will be Michael Grise, winner of the walk-on role contest announced a few weeks back. Wan made the announcement himself via Twitter.

Insidious Chapter 2 is due in theaters August 30. [Variety]

Last month, Universal announced it was getting the pieces in place for a Jurassic Park 4. Naturally, that includes making arrangements for tie-in toys.

Hasbro has entered a deal with the studio to create a new line of Jurassic Park 4 items, which will hit shelves near the film's June 13, 2014 release. It's too early to get any specific information on the toys, but the deal reportedly covers "action figures, plush, dolls, playsets, vehicles, role play, games, KRE-O branded building sets and novelty items." [Variety]

What is it with horror films and painfully generic titles? Last year alone, we had The Apparition, The Possession, and The Pact. Anyway, the best of those, The Pact, is now headed for a sequel that picks up a few weeks after the last film left off. Dallas Hallam and Patrick Horvarth will write and direct this time around, replacing original filmmaker Nicholas McCarthy. No release date has been announced yet, but look for more updates as the film heads to the European Film Market. [Variety]

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes suffered a few setbacks in the development phase, but Andy Serkis says everything's falling into place now.

I had a very good meeting with a certain director today and we had a very exciting conversation about where the story's going. I think it's gonna be an amazing film, really incredible. We're gonna be shooting in the second quarter of this year, probably. It's really shaping up. We're going to be into it fairly soon.

"Second quarter" may indicate that the film is a tiny bit behind schedule, as the production was originally eyeing a March start. As far as we know, though, it's still on track to open May 23, 2014. [Collider]

Having worked on 2009's Star Trek, production designer Scott Chambliss was already intimately familiar with J.J. Abrams' version of the sci-fi universe. Even so, he says the sequel brought him new challenges. Asked what was the most demanding aspect of the new film, he responded:

Figuring out what we wanted our most dangerous environment to be. So many possibilities... and we tried virtually everything. And this being STAR TREK we have dangerous spots all throughout the story. But for the big one, It was down to the wire. What we finally landed on wound up being a huge, impressively textured, and utterly gross set to work on. Everyone had to wear protective glasses and breathing masks to work on that stage!

See the set Chambliss suffered for when Star Trek Into Darkness opens May 17. [TrekWeb]

2013 is really the year of the sequel for Bruce Willis, who has four lined up for this year alone. Perhaps the one we've heard least about so far is Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which has Willis reprising his role as Hartigan. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like he's allowed to give away much more than that yet.

"I worked a few days on it," he said. "It's fantastic working with Jessica Alba and Robert Rodriguez again and his whole crew. I had to sign a confidentiality agreement not to give away the story, but I love working with Robert and love Austin." Presumably we'll learn more by the time it hits October 4.

In contrast, we already know quite about about his next appearance in the Die Hard franchise. A Good Day to Die Hard looks unlikely to top the original, but Willis says that's not for lack of trying. "Every one of them we've tried to make as good as the first film," he said. "Sometimes we got close, sometimes not close enough."

Part of the challenge is that Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber is such a tough act to follow.

[He's] possibly one of the best bad guys in any film I've ever done. We shouldn't have killed him. We shouldn't have killed him in the first one, so we could keep having him come back like a Dr. No or something. He's just a great bad guy.

In the meantime, McClane has changed — but not too much.

The character's remained pretty stable. He still can't get out of his own way, he's still struggling with his own issues, he thinks he knows everything. He may actually be starting to mellow in this film, A Good Day to Die Hard. He's had an ongoing issue with his son for years and years, ever since his son Jack, played by Jai Courtney — ever since Jack set South Philadelphia on fire. Somehow that line got cut out of the film.

In a separate interview, Jai Courtney discussed the John-Jack relationship from the other side.

We needed to invent a reason why these guys were no longer in touch with one another. It's gotta be a pretty extraordinary circumstance to disown a child, or a parent for that matter, and go on your own tangent. We had fun with the fact that Jack was probably a total troublemaker as a kid, got up to no good, got in fights, set buildings on fire, stole cars, all that sort of shit, and John was probably digging him out of trouble. In turn, he's disappointed with his son somewhat for rebelling against what he stands for.

A Good Day to Die Hard opens tomorrow, February 14. [I Am Rogue, Collider]