I love that Hollywood plans ahead for years and that the internet dutifully hangs on every corporate decision. There's always an internet flurry of excitement about it... as if we're all purchasing calendars for 2011,2012,2013 and circling dates. We eagerly pretend that we're planning our social calendars around it.
I barely know what I'm doing next week.That said, I love Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies... so when the teaser poster hit today I did imagine myself lined up on May 6th two years from now, I admit. This despite my feeling that franchises should quit while they're ahead. Q: How do you top Spider-Man 2? A: You don't. You just quit and move on to another project. Even if Hollywood wants to live on a diet of superheroes alone there are still hundreds of them that are awaiting celluloid treatment.
I love superheroes as much as anyone (ok, slightly less I guess... I mean, I won't buy tickets to just anything) but sometimes I wish that Hollywood would get crazier about it and make sequels not just to blockbuster but to interesting movies of all genres.
Wouldn't you kind of like to see a sequel to that trippy indie Primer (the one with the homemade time travelling machine -- remember that)? Or check back in with Emily from The Devil Wears Prada presumably still one stomach flu away from her ideal weight? She was a scream and the film wasn't about her. Emily Blunt is a bigger star now so... why not?
I'd totally be up for a threequel to In the Mood For Love and 2046, wouldn't you? And though I'm positive it's not fashionable to say, I even think it might be cool to check back in on Juno and Paulie at some point to see how they're doing. Most good movies are better left alone but then... there's always Before Sunset to disprove the notion that return trips are unavoidably shallow retreads.
Baby, you are gonna miss that plane.Damn that movie was great.
But maybe the obstacle to most non-franchise genre properties spawning sequels is that really good movies feel so complete as is... For instance, I feel like I know EXACTLY what happens in the imaginary Vicky Christina New York. It seems so clear to me what that summer in Barcelona did and didn't do for Rebecca Hall and Scarlet Johannson.
P.S.
Vera Drake: Jailbreak !
October 12th, 2012 at theaters everywhere.
Clear your calendars. Pass it on.
