Sequel Bits: ‘Evil Dead,’ ‘Coming 2 America,’ ‘Attack the Block,’ ‘Resident Evil,’ ‘Avatar 2,’ ‘Dream House,’ and More

In this edition of Sequel Bits:

• The new Evil Dead movie will start filming this year.
• Coming 2 America had to cut a joke referencing the first film because Eriq La Salle couldn’t return.
• Joe Cornish once again swears that a potential Attack the Block sequel might be headed our way.
• Lupin team Omar Sy and Louis Leterrier are making On The Other Side Of The Tracks sequel.
• Uma Thurman has joined the Stargirl sequel.
• The Resident Evil reboot is now called Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.
• There’s going to be a remake of the Daniel Craig horror movie Dream House. Yes, really.
• Eddie Murphy is still open to Beverly Hills Cop 4.
• Stephen Lang talks about returning for Avatar 2.

There’s a new Evil Dead movie on the way, and it’s meant to be connected to the original franchise, not the more-recent remake that was released in 2013. This entry is directed by Lee Cronin and titled Evil Dead Rise, and we still don’t know much about it. It’s been rumored that the film will be set in a skyscraper, which would be a big change of pace from the woodland setting that’s present in the majority of the films. But that rumor remains a rumor, yet to be confirmed by those involved with the production. One thing that has been confirmed, though, is that the film will start shooting this year. Franchise mainstay Bruce Campbell, who is producing the new film but apparently not starring in it, confirmed to Knox News that production is set to begin sometime in 2021 in New Zealand. Campbell also confirmed that the film is “out of the woods,” which certainly lends some credence to the skyscraper/city theory. We shall see.

Coming 2 America brought back a lot of the first film’s original cast, and a lot of the first film’s jokes with it. One joke that didn’t make a return, though, involves the fictional hair product Soul Glo. In the first Coming To America, Eriq La Salle played Darryl Jenks, the boyfriend of Lisa McDowell, the American woman Eddie Murphy’s Prince  Akeem is trying to woo. Jenks is the son of the man who invented Soul Glo, and has been living off his father’s wealth. Speaking with Rolling Stone, Coming 2 America co-writer David Sheffield said that they originally intended to bring La Salle back for a cameo in which Darryl is seen on TV selling a new product, but when La Salle was unable to return, they scrapped the joke entirely. “We wanted to do a new commercial that would be seen in the background somewhere in a scene, and it was gonna be called ‘Soul Gro.’ The joke was going to be that Eriq is now selling a baldness cure and he was also a customer,” Sheffield said. And director Craig Brewer added: “It was just going to be a very quick joke where Darryl would come out and he would have his curly wig, but then he would take it off and he would be bald. It’d be like a ‘Do you remember me?’ kind of thing and then he would use Soul Gro to make his hair grow. But it didn’t work out.”

Everybody loves Attack the Block, and for years now, fans have hoped for a follow-up. And director Joe Cornish has said a sequel could happen in the past. As recently as last year, Cornish was saying, “We’ve got ideas. I met with John a couple of months ago to talk about it. We’ve always had ideas since after the first one, but obviously we’ve both been busy doing different things. In a weird way, kinda, the longer you leave it the more interesting it is. So that’s what I’ll say.” Now, in 2021, Cornish is once again giving Attack the Block fans some hope, confirming that he and star John Boyega are still working on ideas. “We’re working on it at the moment,” Cornish told EW. “John Boyega was round at my place a few weeks ago and we sat in the garden — socially distanced — talking about story ideas until it was so dark we couldn’t see each other. So, yeah, we’re working on that.” In the original film, aliens invaded a council estate in South London, and Boyega played a local teenager who helped stop them.

Omar Sy and Louis Leterrier, the actor and director behind Netflix’s Lupin, are re-teaming for a sequel to the 2021 French comedy On The Other Side Of The Tracks, per Deadline. The film will have Sy and Laurent Lafitte “reprise their roles from the original movie, which was the story of two very different police officers who team up after a business mogul’s wife is murdered.” From there,  the unlikely pair are reunited for a new investigation that takes them all the way up to the French Alps.”

THR reports that Uma Thurman is joining the cast of the Stargirl sequel for Disney+. The first film was a musical about “An unassuming high school student [who] finds himself inexplicably drawn to the free-spirited new girl whose unconventional ways change how they see themselves and each other.” That free-spirited new girl is, of course, Stargirl. The sequel will see Stargirl leaving town ” into a bigger world of music, dreams and possibility.” Thurman will play “Roxanne Martel, a musician Stargirl admires and encounters on her journey.” And look, no offense to Stargirl, but I honestly think Uma Thurman deserves better than this. But then again, maybe this is exactly the sort of role Thurman feels like playing right now.

Enjoy your stay. @ResidentEvil: #WelcomeToRaccoonCity is only in theaters September 3. pic.twitter.com/DZn28klsJB

— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) March 22, 2021

As you can see in the tweet above, the new Resident Evil movie has a new title: Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. I honestly do not love that title, but I’m still interested in checking this out when it arrives on September 3. The film is an adaptation of the first two Resident Evil games, and by all accounts, it’s going to be much more faithful to the source material than the previous Resident Evil films. The cast includes Kaya Scodelario as Claire Redfield, Hannah John-Kamen as Jill Valentine, Robbie Amell as Chris Redfield, Tom Hopper as Albert Wesker, Avan Jogia as Leon S. Kennedy, Neal McDonough as William Birkin, Lily Gao as Ada Wong, Chad Rook as Richard Aiken, Donal Logue as Chief Brian Irons, and Marina Mazepa as Lisa Trevor.

Hey, remember Dream House? You probably don’t, but it’s a 2011 horror film starring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, and Naomi Watts, and for some reason, it’s getting a remake. The folks at Morgan Creek, who own the film, recently spoke with Park Circus and said, “We are rebooting and firmly in the packaging stage on Dream House, a psychological thriller that originally starred Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts, and directed by James Sheridan as a theatrical motion-picture.” In the original movie, “Publisher Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) quits a lucrative job in New York to relocate his wife, Libby (Rachel Weisz), and their daughters to a quaint town in New England. As they settle into their home, however, the Atentons discover that a woman and her children were murdered there, and the surviving husband is the town’s prime suspect. With help from a neighbor (Naomi Watts) who was close to the murdered family, Will pieces together a horrifying chain of events.” And honestly, I don’t know how to feel about this one. On one hand, I like the idea of remaking unsuccessful films rather than remaking movies that were already good to begin with. On the other hand…Dream House? Really?

Will Axel Foley return once again? Maybe! Speaking with Desus & Mero (via The Playlist), Beverly Hills Cop franchise star Eddie Murphy confirmed that there are still plans to make Beverly Hills Cop 4, but he’s not committing until the script is where it needs to be. “They’ve been trying to make another Beverly Hills Cop for 15 years now,” Murphy said. “Right now, Netflix has it, and they’re trying to develop a script. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing next. But, I’m not doing nothing until the script is right.” I’m not exactly sure we need yet another Beverly Hills Cop movie, but hey, if it gets made, and Murphy returns, and it’s rated R, I’ll watch it.

Even though his character died in the first Avatar, Stephen Lang is returning for Avatar 2, and the actor provided some insight into his comeback. For one thing, Lang says that this time he didn’t need to get as much in shape as he did in the first film. “Well, I did not need to get quite as big,” he told Coming Soon. “I was really big in that first one. In the new films I’m leaner — I am leaner, there’s no question, but just as defined. That’s the deal.” From there Lang also talked about how his character, Quaritch, behaves in the sequel:

“I think he’s an incredibly fascinating character and he wouldn’t be back if Jim Cameron wasn’t fascinated in him as well and kind of bent on seeing where he goes. Where does that character lead him as a writer, as a director? And where does it lead me as an actor? And so, I think you can absolutely look for some areas of extreme growth in the character; and then probably areas of regression in the character as well, hopefully, over a period of four more films. Of course, we need him to be very, very interesting, where, by the end you’ve taken a journey, or you’ve witnessed a character go on a life journey that was pretty interesting. You know, that you were glad that you could observe. So that’s what we’re trying to do.”

If all goes according to plan, Avatar 2 will arrive on December 16, 2022.

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