So Many Sequels: 'Star Trek XII,' 'Terminator 5,' 'Zoolander 2' and More

This should hold you over for five minutes

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Monday, May 18th 2009 at 12:11 AM

There has been so much sequel news over the past two weeks much of it I have completely ignored… until now. Here we have one quick shot with links, quotes and everything else I had stored up in relation to sequels and prequels and whatever else you want to call 'em, although reboots have been excluded.

TERMINATOR 5

We begin with McG talking to Film Journal about the plot for Terminator 5 when Terminator Salvation hasn't even hit theaters yet:

"They've figured out time travel to the degree where they can send more than one naked entity. So you're going to have hunter killers and transports and harvesters and everything arriving in our time and Connor fighting back with conventional military warfare, which I think is going to be fucking awesome."

This would bring us back to a pre-Judgment Day 2011 and McG has even said he would like to have Terminator 5 include a look at "Robert Patrick the way he looks today." Patrick played the T-1000 in the 1991 ground-breaking sci-fi and I can see how adding him in a different (yet similar) capacity for the fifth film would be exciting for fans.

STAR TREK XII

For the most part, the news behind Star Trek XII exists solely around the idea of possibilities. We now have an alternate timeline, and as a result we have unlimited possibilities. Khan was never abandoned on a soon-to-be-dead planet, the 23rd century will once again most likely perish due to the lack of Humpback whales, Spock never died, Kirk never died, Spock never resurrected and even Tribbles haven't invaded the Enterprise. So, what hints has director JJ Abrams dropped? Not a lot, but I am sure true Trekkies will raise an eyebrow to these statements:

"The fun of this [new alternate 'Trek' reality] is that the destiny of these characters is in their hands — it's not constrained by the pre-existing films or TV series. Believe me, whether it's William Shatner or Khan … it would be ridiculous to not be open to those ideas."

"One of the reasons we wanted to break with the original Star Trek timeline was it felt restrictive… The idea, now that we are in an independent timeline, allows us to use any of the ingredients from the past — or come up with brand-new ones — to make potential stories."

Personally I don't like the idea of bringing in Shatner only because it would already sound like they were duplicating this most recent film and bringing in Khan seems silly as well. I can't imagine JJ and crew created this alternate timeline just to bring back singular villains that have already been used to their limit.

Then again, it could just be an early case of Joker-itis… Many thought Heath Ledger couldn't duplicate what Nicholson did with the iconic villain and look how that turned out.

In this case, I think I would prefer to see some new territory explored. There is a universe of possibility. How about making up a new villain?

Of course, Abrams already told UK Press, "We don't have a story [for a sequel], we don't have a script, we don't have an outline or a thought. We just have this movie." So anything is possible.

BEHIND THE MASK 2

I'm not sure how many of you saw the 2007 horror Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, but as far back as July 2007 there has been talk of a sequel and Icons of Fright continue the story with Behind the Mask scripter David J. Stieve telling the site there's been some "concrete interest in making a sequel to Behind the Mask soon”. And though he couldn't say who with, he did add "it's legitimate enough to get (director) Scott (Glosserman) and I working on the story and plotting it out.”

The original film is a mockumentary centering on a group of college students who set out to follow Leslie Vernon who has invited them to document his story as he hopes to follow in the footsteps of such renown killers as Freddy Kruger, Jason Voorhees and Michael Meyers. The film pays homage and satarizes its predecessors and Stieve told Icons Vernon would be "channeling Freddy a bit more this time, finding some frightening ways to express his sense of humor."

MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D 2

I actually just watched this year's 3-D horror My Bloody Valentine 3-D on DVD a couple days back and it isn't all that bad and outside of the fact the 3-D provides a bit of a halo-effect with the at-home 3-D viewing thanks to a green spectrum that seems to be a bit off, even that part works. So, with that said I shouldn't be surprised there are already plans for a sequel… or should I say, prequel?

Director Patrick Lussier told Arrow in the Head the following news with regard to a second film:

The sequel that we wanted to do is a stronger story than the original. Even though you know who the killer is, it has twists and turns that you don't expect, even knowing who the killer is. There is a whole, kind of, getting into his mythology of how he became what he became. And then using that, you discover that… there are things that are eluded to in the first one that you don't have all the answers for.

Particularly with the killer going to psychiatric institute and how did he get let out of that facility. There is a lot of bitterness with people in that town because of the rash of killings that happened, and it all unfolds and mayhem ensues. And that is within three minutes of the film opening. So you know, we'll see what happens…

ZOOLANDER 2

I had never seen Zoolander due to a bit of a love/hate relationship with Ben Stiller, but I finally saw it last year and am happy to say I enjoyed it quite a bit and would be more than welcome to a sequel, something that has been talked about for a long time, but never to any level of reality. And today it doesn't get much better, but this is a sequel column so here goes.

Over at JoBlo.com James Thoo reports he caught Stiller on "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross" in which Ross pressured Stiller a bit into talking about the possibility of a sequel. Still ultimately revealed they had gone through a couple of drafts of the script and the current plot is…

"Derek gets hired to be a personal model for an Arab Sheikh and he finds out models are being turned into oil…"

I can get on board with that… greenlight!

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS PREQUEL

I was surprised how much traction a tiny quote from a New York Times piece received recently when Quentin Tarantino, in the process of discussing Inglourious Basterds, said, "I have a half-written prequel ready to go if this movie's a smash." I was surprised, because that's it… that's the news.

Do with that what you will.

And that's it. Anything sound interesting?