Nearly 40 years after his introduction to audiences during The Yogi Bear Show’s original television run, the titular character still resonates with the public, as the live-action/CGI Yogi Bear (2010) raked in over $200 million at the box office. Although critics panned the film, its financial success apparently warranted a sequel from Warner Bros.
Initially, the studio rehired the writers of the original, Joshua Sternin and Jeffrey Ventimillia, to develop a script for Yogi Bear 2 back in May 2011. Unfortunately, producers weren’t very happy with the script and decided to shake things up by bringing in someone new to the project.
According to Deadline, that someone is none other than Broken Lizard alum, Jay Chandrasekhar. Warner Bros. has hired the funnyman not only to rewrite the script, but also to direct the film.
Chandrasekhar is known to comedy buffs as one of the founding members of the comedy troupe Broken Lizard, which together has made five films to date, including the cult classic Super Troopers. Chandrasekhar served as director on that film and has plenty of other writing/directing credits under his belt, including guest gigs on Psych, Chuck, Community and most recently, Up All Night.
Chandrasekhar has the experience in the director’s chair that the studio was looking for, but he hasn’t really made anything aimed at children. His sense of humor and the premises of his films can be described as somewhat “adult,” among other things. His latest cinematic directorial effort was this year’s The Babymakers, which centered on a young man’s struggles with infertility who resorts to stealing his sperm back from a clinic to which he donated years earlier.
For Yogi Bear 2, he will certainly have to dial down the crass and crude instincts that served him well on other films. Still, it’s hard to imagine Chandrasekhar being unable to improve upon the humor of a film that’s currently sitting at 13% on Rotten Tomatoes, even if he’s working outside his wheelhouse.
Donald De Line and Karen Rosenfelt are back to produce Yogi Bear 2, but at this point it’s unclear whether the cast, which included Dan Aykrod as the voice of Yogi and Justin Timberlake as the voice of Boo-Boo, will return for the sequel. As always, we will keep you posted on any updates on the project.
Yogi Bear 2 is expected to hit theatres in 2013.
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Sources: Deadline
