Caffeinated Clint
Deadline‘s reporting that “American Reunion” helmers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg have inked a plum two-year deal over at Universal.
Hurwitz & Schlossberg Productions were asked to move onto the Uni lot by co-presidents of production Peter Cramer and Jeff Kirschenbaum.
“We entrusted Jon and Hayden with one of Universal’s most valuable franchises and we are thrilled with the result, which has been getting a tremendous response from early audience screenings,” said Cramer. Added Kirschenbaum: “They really know how to make crowd-pleasing comedies and we are excited to expand our relationship with them on other projects they create.”
The writer-director duo said “When we first became friends in high school, we shared a dream of making movies, specifically laugh-your-ass-off comedies. At Universal, we feel we have found the perfect place to continue turning out dreams into reality.”
Now the big question is, have Uni beckoned the boys to breathe new life into some other dormant franchises? They’ve brought “American Pie” back from crusty direct-to-DVD hell, after all. It’s a given that they’ll likely be asked to do another “American Pie” movie but maybe there’s something else they think they can work their magic on?
Hurwitz and Schlossberg tell me there’s one Universal franchise they’d like to do something with – but they’re so terrified they’d screw it up that it’ll likely remain an improbably pipe dream.
“We want Back to the Future, just come out and say it”, Hurwitz nudges Scholssberg into admitting. “That’s our favourite trilogy. We’re always having this conversation…”
Continues Hurwitz, “There’s an influence in this movie and the Harold and Kumar movies in the sense that I remember, we both remember loving Back to the Future, and the second one coming out, and just feeling the excitement of seeing it, and people can debate and argue how good it is and everything but that’s what I love about franchises and sequels is, “Oh my God, it’s coming out.” So for us American Pie Reunion, it’s… If it’s a fraction of the excitement of what that was, that’s the kind of movie going experience that we like, we like to try to get.”
Schlossberg says he thinks it best keep for another time this idea – – sometime way, excuse the pun, in the future.
“I wouldn’t want to do it now because people would be like, “Oh, there’s no way it will be as good as the original.” But 30 years from now when Spielberg’s like 90 and those guys are kind of on their way out, and those movies just look really old because we’re watching movies that are old, literally in two dimensions or something, it would be great to have all these classics that you’re able to remake.”
Having said that, both admit they’d always prefer to resurrect franchises by way of a sequel, not a remake.
“I personally would far rather a sequel, unless it’s something that is so old that the general movie going public hasn’t really seen the movie, and then you could consider it a reboot”, says Schlossberg.
In terms of “Back to the Future”, the guys feel they’ll be beaten to the punch.
“The problem is [the sequel is set in] 2015, that’s why I feel it is inevitably going to be remade because it is dependent on time periods that people won’t connect with. It’s the perfect movie to remake, but it’s so loved by a generation that is still with it and going to be with it.”
Personally, I feel uneasy about it but…. what about you guys?
