Chances are if you’re a fan of comedies and live anywhere near a movie theater, then you were one of the many people who went to see Todd Phillip’s hilarious bachelor-comedy, The Hangover. The film went on to become the single highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time, raking in over $450 million worldwide from a budget of $35 million.
That’s impressive for a film that didn’t seem like it would make that big of a splash. Just something about it – on top of it being genuinely funny pretty much from start to finish – connected with a wide audience and people went out to see it in droves.
With the success of the film, a sequel was pretty much inevitable. The Hangover 2 (as it’s being dubbed for the time being) is already in the works, and returning director, Todd Phillips, tells EW that he’s half-way through working on the script for it. He’s not revealing any plot details (understandably), but says it won’t just rehash the “hungover after a bachelor party in Vegas” plot of the first one.
Phillips told EW that even as The Hangover was shooting, he was already thinking of ideas of where else he could take these characters:
“You always have those days when you say, ‘If we did another one, wouldn’t it be funny if…?’… Then once the movie tested so well, Warner Bros. came to me even before it was released and said, ‘Let’s do another one.’ “
Not sure if I believe that last part – if the movie had absolutely bombed I don’t think the studio would waste anymore time and money on another… The Hangover sequel will reunite stars Bradley Cooper (who’s landed the high-profile gig of playing Face in The A-Team movie), Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms. Phillips echoes a sentiment I think a lot of us have about the first:
“What people loved about The Hangover was not Las Vegas or the bachelor party but these three characters… I think you can take those characters and put them in other situations, and you don’t need the sell of Vegas and a bachelor party and all that other stuff.”
I completely agree with that – I’d love to see those three characters (I wonder whether Justin Bartha – the soon-to-be-married friend who’s bachelor party set the chaos in motion – will return?) in lots of different situations to see how they react. The comedic chemistry and timing between them was dynamite and more of that would be a joy to watch.
However, just what can a Hangover sequel be about? As I said, I don’t want it to be rehashing of the first one, not even that they wake up hungover and without memory of last night’s events but just not in Vegas. However, if they remove the hungover element then how can they possibly have “Hangover” in the title? It’s a double-edged sword, IMHO. I’m really interested to see what Phillips comes up with as far as the basic plot goes. Here’s hoping he makes something even half as funny as the first, and that it’s not just doing it because it was a financial success the first time around.
Do you think a sequel to The Hangover is warranted? Or is it best left at one? What plot do you think the sequel should have?
There’s no official release date been set for The Hangover 2 yet, but most likely it’ll be sometime in 2011 (probably the summer).
