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There can be no more precarious word in showbiz than ‘sequel.’ Get it right and you’ve made The Empire Strikes Back. Get it wrong and you’ll be watching Staying Alive — and history tells us that’s far likelier. But that hasn’t fazed Miramax nor the Weinstein Company who are, once again, back in business together.
The movie moguls are hedging their bets, however, by announcing that a sequel to the multi-Oscar award-winning Shakespeare in Love from 1999 will either be made as a film or a TV series. And they’re not stopping there with a slew of other hits potentially getting the sequel treatment, such as Bad Santa, Rounders, Shall We Dance, Swingers (Made doesn’t count, huh?), Copland, From Dusk Till Dawn and The Amityville Horror (which has previously been remade by MGM). What’s more, they’re also talking about getting third installments out of Bridget Jones’ Diary and Clerks.
(See TIME’s top 10 sequels better than the original.)
Where you stand on this probably depends on if you fall more on the side of romance or realism. Though Miramax and Harvey and Bob Weinstein have often been synonymous with original, creative cinema, the uncertain economic environment has arguably dictated that going with a tried and tested format is the safest way to approach their business right now. Indeed, Danny Boyle recently remarked that a sequel to Trainspotting is on track, which some will think is going to spoil the magic of the original.
(See TIME’s top 10 movies of 2010.)
But in a statement, the Weinsteins said, “We are very close to these films, and the new management of Miramax also feels that we are in the best position to create sequels that are at once worthy and compelling in their own right.” And Clerks director Kevin Smith — who could do with a hit — said, “If someone was going to exploit the library for sequels, remakes, TV, it’d rather be the devil I know.”
(See more on Harvey Weinstein in the TIME 100.)
Whether audiences will feel the same way remains to be seen. (via MTV)