Why, oh great cinematic deities, why do you do this to us? Have we so wronged you that you really, really have to give us a sequel to The Pink Panther? What’s that you say, oh magnificent ones? Hugely popular? Massive box-office? Curses!
Yes, it’s true and official – Sony and MGM have announced that they’re making Panther 2 and have hired newbies Scott Neustadter and Michael M Weber to write the thing. The plot for now is a close-guarded secret, with only the dreaded words “high concept” escaping studio lips, but we’re going to make a guess that Steve Martin’s Inspector Clouseau gets into plenty of wacky scrapes.
And the writing duo haven’t just struck it lucky once, oh no. They’ve also sold a comedy spec to Fox Searchlight, called (500) Days Of Summer. The offbeat rom com will see a woman who doesn’t think love exists get pestered by a bloke who falls for her. The pair used to work for Tribeca Productions, where Neustadter was the director of development and Weber was Robert De Niro’s assistant. “I saw the kinds of scripts that were coming in and what people were looking for," Neustadter told The Hollywood Reporter. "I think we were able to pick up how to give people what they want, not be too esoteric but still have a voice. We are weird guys, after all."