Movies

Adam F. Goldberg Never Says Die On 'The Goonies 2,' Sets Up Pitch With Richard Donner With New Concept Art

goonies 2 concept art
By Hoai-Tran Bui/

Adam F. Goldberg will never say die on his mission to get The Goonies 2 made. The creator of the ABC series The Goldbergs, a family comedy series which revels in the nostalgia of the 1980s, has spent the long months of quarantine taking his nostalgia for the beloved 1985 Richard Donner adventure film and doing something with it. And finally, Goldberg revealed that he has set up a pitch meeting with Donner, aided by some brand-new concept art by Michael Barnard, to try to sell the filmmaker on the idea of The Goonies 2.

Goldberg has been trying to get a sequel to The Goonies off the ground for 15 years, first pitching Donner the idea back in 2005, before getting shut down. But Goonies never say...well, you know. Channeling that good old Goonies spirit, Goldberg is trying again — revealing that he has set up a pitch meeting with Donner, this time armed with art by Michael Barnard, who previously worked on Garbage Pail Kids.

"Big news! I tried to wait out this damn pandemic to present Richard Donner THE GOONIES 2 in person... but I caved and set a zoom for for Fri," Goldberg tweeted. "Never say die, people! The brilliant Michael Barnard created all of my concept art. I don't want to give too much away but COOL!"

Barnard created art for Goldberg's vision for The Goonies 2 before, and this new piece has even more clues hidden for where this dream sequel could go. A young girl holds the keys to the treasure map and stands in front of the familiar bone organ that we saw in the original 1985 film, but it appears that all the locations of the treasure hunt have been turned into tourist-locations-meets-amusement-park. A sign on a guardrail in front of the girl describes the "Bone Organ, 1632," while the bridge to the right (adorned with a shiny new handrail) advertises "Willie's Wild Water Slide."

Goldberg has been attempting to make The Goonies 2 since 2005 and his failed pitch to Donner, working on a script for Goonies: The Musical, which ended up going to an unnamed writer from The Simpsons. Inspiration finally struck back in 2013 when Goldberg was working on an episode of The Goldbergs that was dedicated to The Goonies. Ever since then, he's been developing the sequel on spec with the hope of pitching his idea to Donner. The idea became a treatment, the treatment turned into a script, and now he's come full circle back to pitching Donner.

Could he be successful this time? Could Goldberg get the sequel to shoot at Cannon Beach, Oregon, like the original film? Could he convince Cyndi Lauper to do the soundtrack again? We'll have to wait until Friday to see.

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