Editorial Staff
A sequel to classic film “On Golden Pond” is in the works, screenwriter Ernest Thompson tells NewHampshire.com.
The 1980 film, based on the author’s own successful play, told the story of an inter-generational family struggling to reconnect. Jane Fonda, Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn star.
The sequel, “Home on Golden Pond”, is inching closer and closer, says the Oscar winning screenwriter.
The conflict in the new movie comes after the main characters realize that the “pristine and idyllic place” they used to love is gone, said Thompson, despoiled by environmental degradation and, as he envisions it, threatened by a mustache-twirling bad guy.
The bad guy is buying up all the land along Golden Pond and plans to build a resort, Paradise on Golden Pond. That doesn’t sit well with a new generation of Thayers.
“I’ve always been struck by the differences between the ‘summer people’ and ‘the locals,’?” said Thompson. He said that while he had been a member of the former, he enjoyed the company of the latter and found them to be “more interesting.”
There’s a national longing “for a place where you fit in. A lot of people feel shut out,” Thompson explained, which is why now is the right time for “Home on Golden Pond.”
“I’ve got a producer who’s mad for this story,” said Thompson, adding that Ileen Maisel, the founder of Amber Entertainment, “intends to shoot at the end of this summer into foliage season.”
It’s unknown where the film will shoot and Thompson said they won’t know until they see how much coin they can secure to make the movie. Unlike the first film, the sequel mightn’t get to shoot in the Granite State because New Hampshire doesn’t have a tax incentive for filmmaking. But Thompson really wants to shoot on Squam Lake again, noting that the lake house used in “On Golden Pond” has weathered perfectly for the sequel.
It’s unknown who will star in the film but Thompson says he fancies Jeff Bridges, Sally Field and Glenn Close.
