A couple of days ago I began working on an article headlined “Are there Any Good Sequels to Bad First Films?” I was working on it based on a conversation I was having related to the upcoming Wrath of the Titans (aka Clash of the Titans 2) and as we were talking I said it could be better than the first film. This comment was followed by a conversation about whether or not there actually were any sequels to bad first films that were actually good.
After a long conversation we came to the conclusion Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was the only one we could think of, though I did toss in Wrong Turn 2: Dead End as a direct-to-DVD option, but that didn’t really seem fair. Despite all that, the reason I didn’t post the article was because there weren’t necessarily all that many “bad” films that actually got sequels. However, there is one aspect of filmmaking and sequels that seems to be above quality… money.
Transformers was not a good movie, but it made over $709 million worldwide so of course a sequel was going to be made. And it was. And people generally hated it. And it made over $836 million worldwide. And yet another sequel was made. And this one made over $1.1 billion worldwide.
Now we have Clash of the Titans, a film I didn’t entirely dislike, but am not above admitting it was not enjoyed by critics and it wasn’t necessarily “good”. Audiences, however, turned out to the tune of $493 million worldwide, much of that coming from overseas.
Two years later and the sequel is due on March 30, 2012 from Battle: Los Angeles director, Jonathan Liebesman. Should we expect the same Transformers multiplier and expect Clash 2 to bring in around $581 million worldwide? Warner must believe so since they’ve apparently commissioned a script for a third film.
Heat Vision reports Dan Mazeau and David Leslie Johnson, who co-wrote Wrath‘s screenplay with Steven Knight and also share story credit with Greg Berlanti, are working on Clash of the Titans 3, which would continue the adventures of Sam Worthington as Perseus, son of Zeus.
The site reports a character named Agenor, a sidekick to Perseus in Clash 2 played by Toby Kebbell, may also figure into the new story, as the second movie leaves the door open for the character’s return.
Along with Worthington and Kebbell, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Danny Huston will return for Clash of the Titans 2 as Zeus, Hades and Poseidon respectively along with newcomers Edgar Ramirez as Ares, Rosamund Pike as Andromeda and Bill Nighy as Hephaestus. For complete story details click here.
Are we looking at another Transformers-esque franchise with Warner’s attempts to continue Clash despite the negative response to the first film? Clash of the Titans is certainly a cheaper franchise to make as the first film cost $125 million compared to the $150 million to make Transformers and Sam Worthington is definitely positive when it comes to the film, recently talking to Buzzine about the film saying:
You make Clash 2 weighty. Clash 1 is a video game. You make Clash 2 weighty. You take everything you’ve learned and go, “I’m not doing this f*cking shit! I’m going to do a weighty script in a blockbuster.” That’s the bigness of a blockbuster. They’re very hard because they’re done by such a machine, so you try to get that weight that an independent can allow you — that freedom that they have on an independent script — and then you try to fit it into a blockbuster where there’s a whole set of people who have a say. With something like Clash 2, that’s definitely what we’ve aimed for.
Maybe we not only have to ask if Clash is the new Transformers, but if Worthington is the new Shia LaBeouf. Either way, I am interested to see how Clash of the Titans 2 turns out. Will it be a sequel to a “bad” first film that is actually good?
