The way Hollywood seems to work today is that if a movie makes enough money, then it should be turned into a sequel. Often, the quality of the story isn’t even a factor. I mean, look at how many ‘Scary Movie’ films there are. The franchise made money, so more were made. Even the incredibly bad ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ was successful enough to warrant sequel. Now, another panned fairytale reimagining has reached the point where it can go back to the well for more.
According to Deadline, Paramount is moving forward with a sequel to ‘Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters’ starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton. Though the film only made $54 million domestically, which barely made a profit from their $50 million budget, and was bashed pretty badly by most critics, once it reached the overseas markets, it blew up. This week, the tally is up to a whopping $205.8 million worldwide, showing that the rest of the world is down for more from Norwegian filmmaker Tommy Wirkola, the mind behind the Nazi zombie film, ‘Dead Snow’.
It has not been confirmed if the writer-director Wirkola (or the stars for that matter) will return for the sequel, but the film’s producers Beau Flynn, Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Kevin Messick are all in for another dark fantasy film. Despite a clause about a sequel probably being written into their contracts, one would assume that Renner is very busy these days due to the successes of his franchise films like ‘The Bourne Legacy’ and ‘The Avengers’. If he does end up being unable to reprise his role as Hansel, then it’s possible that the studio could recast or focus on another character from the film. Regardless, talks are still in the very early stages, so let’s not start rumors of Jeremy Renner ditching this movie just yet. In fact, I’ll bet that the producers will do everything they can to keep him since he’s evolved into quite the big name since they shot the first film.
These studios were going to run out of fairytales to remake eventually, but who knew that it would happen so fast. Are you looking forward to a sequel to ‘Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters’? Do you think Jeremy Renner will return for the next installment despite his newfound fame? Because he plays a title role, could a sequel succeed without him? And did you know that Will Ferrell was behind this continuation of the classic German fairytale? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments below.
