I know you’re not surprised to hear the news screenwriter Craig Mazin is returning to write The Hangover 3 for Warner Bros. Mazin teamed with Todd Phillips and Scot Armstrong to pen this last weekend’s record breaking comedy The Hangover Part II, which went on to earn over $205 million in just its first five days so who in their right mind didn’t think a sequel would be greenlit almost immediately?
Director Todd Phillips has already discussed the possibility of a third film, speaking at the press conference for the second one saying, “It will not revolve around a wedding, and it will not revolve around a forgotten night, I’ll tell you that much. It’s just a different structure. We’ll see.” As far as the prospect of Zach Galifianakis’ character Alan getting married, Phillips shut that down saying, “Alan will never get married. Alan’s asexual. If he doesn’t know that by now, he’s in trouble.”
It’s interesting, I just got back from a screening in which I was discussing The Hangover 2 with a couple of other Seattle-based critics and was saying to them that essentially by copying the first film and doing it all over again in Thailand, they have opened the door to a wealth of originality that wasn’t used for Part 2 that can now be used to create The Hangover 3. The fact they used zero imagination to make the second one means they can finally use a little imagination for the third. Then again, as one of the people I was talking to said, “But that means they’d have to work.” True.
So should they travel the road of originality, what would this original idea be? Well, Badass Digest is reporting the news of the Mazin hire as well and actually has a quote from Mazin saying, “I think the third movie ends with Doug [Justin Bartha’s character] staring at a row of crosses in a graveyard. It’s everyone — his wife, his family is dead, everybody from the first movie is dead. Somebody shows up and tells him his dog is dead.” Okay, that’s one idea… I guess I now can’t help but wonder how we get there and it certainly closes the door on the prospect of a number four.
I guess the question is, would you pay to go see The Hangover 3? Hopes and anticipation were obviously high for the second film even if reviews weren’t. I’ve seen a few people here and there defending the second film with the age old “What did you expect?” defense, which as we know is about as solid an argument as “I’m rubber you’re glue.” But really, if they actually do go for something different, is there anything that would stop you from taking another trip with Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Alan and Doug?
