You’ll know by now that to say we weren’t fans of found footage party pic **Project X would be like saying that the goat had a tough time of it in Jurassic Park. But audiences across the pond apparently connected with the movie, as it debuted this past weekend with $21 million at the box office. Now Warner Bros. has quietly asked co-writer Michael Bacall to start cooking up a treatment for a sequel.
Actually, Bacall has been brainstorming for a few weeks now, with the studio and producer Todd Phillips likely looking to get moving on things should it have a bona fide hit on its hands. Given the low budget and lack of expensive stars in the cast, it was a much safer bet that many blockbusters.
So what can we expect from Project X 2: The Pukening or Project Y (we really don’t feel they thought ahead with the title, as there’s only **Project Z **left after that unless you get into even crazier subtitles)? No one yet knows and Bacall’s not saying. Given that the first movie was supposed to showcase the ultimate party and breached plenty of laws in its plot, it can surely only follow that with an apocalypse…
Everything is open for now: it’s not yet clear whether the story will include original actors Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper or Jonathan Brown, or move on to some other hard-partying teens. Perhaps they could go in a completely different direction and set the next one in a retirement home, where everyone goes off their rockers (literally) on tainted Sanatogen.
In related Bacall writing gig news, the Scott Pilgrim / 2****1 Jump Street scribe has also talked about his work coming up with a movie starring Tom Cruise’s Les Grossman producer character from Tropic Thunder. Despite things being awfully quiet on that spin-off front, Bacall has been beavering away, working with Cruise to craft something that would show Les as a little more sympathetic than the blowhard cameo allowed.
"I felt really great about that from the beginning because I loved the character," Bacall tells The Hollywood Reporter. "Tom had an incredible idea on how to tell this story, and give it some real emotion and heart. And as soon as he hit on that idea, it was off to the races. But I feel really good about that project, and I hope that it will happen."
According to Bacall, we'll be getting some explanation for why Grossman is such an arse, with an actual character arc this time. "The guy will be a force of nature, but we want to have some kind of emotional connection to him.” When will we see it? So far, Bacall could only offer that he “hopes” it will happen. So don’t start queuing at your local fleapit just yet.