Sequel Bits: 'Terminator 5,' 'Scary Movie 5,' 'The Signal 2,' 'Catching Fire,' 'The Hobbit,' 'Sinister,' 'Transformers 4'
If today's Sequel Bits are to be believed, we'll see one sequel earlier than expected, never see another and have begun thinking about a hypothetical one. After the jump, read all about the following:
Last week Moviehole.net reported the self-admitted "non-news" that Terminator 5 was laying dormant. That much was easy to figure out as director Justin Lin moved away some time ago, star Arnold Schwarzenegger is incredibly busy and we haven't heard any movement on the film in some time. What's more interesting though is a seeming confirmation that, the reason the film was becoming increasingly difficult to move forward, was that it needed all of the original actors to reprise their roles, much like J.J. Abrams' used Leonard Nimoy in 2009's Star Trek. Here's an excerpt from the article:
We're told that two or three years ago, when Lin and Schwarzenegger was both concerned with getting the film done, there was a great concept that linked up to T1 that involved time travel to alternate dimensions. The concept "would've centered on an alternate timeline in which Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese lived" (as far as I could gather, that interchanging timeline storyline, that would mean the cast of the original film – Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn could reprise their roles.) "But there's no movie at the moment, thus no locked-in script.", we're reminded again.
ComingSoon.net reports that the release date for the now filming Scary Movie 5, directed by Malcolm Lee, has moved its release date ahead one week to April 12, 2013. That sounds insignificant, but it sets up a horror parody sequel vs. horror remake battle at the box office as that's the scheduled release date for Fede Alvarez's Evil Dead remake.David Bruckner, one of the directors of VHS, spoke to Collider about that film as well as his cult hit, The Signal. When queried about a possible sequel, he said a full script had been written but it probably would never get made. Here's the quote:
We wrote a sequel that we were very proud of, that picked up the moment that the original movie ended and actually took us back to the night the signal was first introduced, and brought some new characters into the fray, and eventually intertwined them with the characters from the first movie. So there were even more competing perspectives. We were going to really update the style of the first one. The first one was such a slapdash production, like we were really, really making that one up as we went. I think with the sequel we were very excited to do three perspectives again, but structure it in a way where they were intertwined and maybe built more momentum to a singular thread. You had maybe not as fragmented of a plot arc, but you still had the fragmentary sensation that you got from the first movie, which we thought was one of those really happy accidents that made the movie unique. I don't know if that movie will ever exist.
On Location Vacations posted a bunch of photos from filming The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, including this image from The Hob, for the Quarter Quell.Hugo Weaving spoke to Collider and had a bunch of interesting thing to say. One of which is that he has not been asked to return as the voice of Megatron for Michael Bay's Transformers 4. That, in itself, isn't a big deal. What is a big deal is that he has never even met the director after three films. Head to Collider to read that quote, but here's what he had to say about The Hobbit being split into three films:
I found out The Hobbit was going to be a trilogy quite recently, when everyone else found out about it. Originally, when I said goodbye to Pete [Jackson] in L.A., I said, "I'll see you on The Hobbit," and he said, "Well, I'm not doing The Hobbit." And then, it was, "We are doing The Hobbit, but I'm not going to direct it." And then, it was, "Well, I am directing it now." And then, it was, "Actually, we're doing The Hobbit in two films." So, when I went to shoot it out there, there were two scripts and two films. Now, I've just found out, not that long ago, when it was announced. He said, "Well, we've got all this fabulous material and these wonderful people." They hadn't filmed the final battle sequence yet, which would have been at the end of 2. For a number of reasons, they decided that there are three films in there. I hope there are. I don't know. I was truly there for four or five weeks and enjoyed myself, and went home again. My knowledge of the workings of Middle Earth, at the moment, are very minimal.
Finally, I have yet to see Sinister, but I plan on correcting that this week. So I didn't read this article from ScreenCrush as its spoiler filled but, apparently, it's an idea to carry over the ideas of the film into a sequel.