Back in February we reported on the news that Universal was looking to bring back the American Pie franchise from the bottomless pit of straight-to-DVD releasing and release American Pie 4 in theaters. Although at the time the studio declined to comment on the development of the project, we did hear word that a lot of the original cast members were highly interested in returning to the franchise (although no one had actually signed on).
We also learned that Universal was poised to hire Harold & Kumar writers, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, to write the American Pie 4 script. Now we learn that not only are they writing the movie but they will also direct it. The news comes from Risky Business.
Hurwitz and Schlossberg wrote the first Harold & Kumar and wrote and directed the sequel. It was expected that they would return for the third film, entitled A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas (nice!), since they wrote the screenplay for it. But it looks like they’ve decided to jump ship for the fourth slice of American Pie.
The duo are already in the midst of writing American Pie 4, which is strangely being described as both a reboot and a reuniting of original cast members. Why is there such interest in bringing the raunchy comedy series back to the big screen? Well, no deals are in place quite yet, but “the strong interest on the actors’ end is one reason the project is in high gear.”
So where does that leave Harold and Kumar 3? Well, they certainly aren’t ditching plans for the movie as a deal is already being lined up for newcomer Todd Strauss Schulson to occupy the director’s chair (he was a music video director who recently impressed with his short film, Mano-a-Mano). Deals are also already in place for John Cho (Harold) and Kal Penn (Kumar) to reprise their respective roles, something which I was half expecting not to happen (I thought we’d end up with two new faces just for the sake of carrying on the series).
The storylines of both American Pie 4 and Harold & Kumar 3 are being kept under wraps at this early stage, although one storyline of the latter reportedly involves bringing back Neil Patrick Harris, even though [SPOILER!] he “died” in the sequel (of course if you hung around after the end credits, you saw the immortal NPH’s timely resurrection).
As for AP4, I’ve already suggested a couple of possible plots – either the original gang get back together for their 10 year high school reunion, or we catch up with them trying to deal with married life vs. being in their 30s and still single.
Are you happy to see the Harold & Kumar creators directing American Pie 4? What plots would you like the films to have?
We’re not sure when American Pie 4 will start shooting or when it might be released. A summer shooting start is being eyed for A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas with a release date TBA.
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