The immediate forecast at Sony Pictures Animation calls for more meatballs as screenwriters John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the duo behind the new comedy Horrible Bosses, have been tapped to pen a sequel to the 2009 animated hit, the L.A. Times reports.
The original Cloudy pulled in $243 million worldwide by adapting Judi and Ron Barrett’s 1978 children’s novel into a high-energy, 3D animated adventure story about an amateur inventor (Bill Hader) who comes up with a weather machine that makes it rain food over his hometown of Chewandswallow. Yet while the Barretts came up with their own follow up to the initial Meatballs -- titled Pickles to Pittsburgh -- the Times says Sony will go in a different direction for its sequel by developing an original idea.
That’s not the only major change being made by Team Meatballs. Original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller also will not be returning for the sequel. Instead, they will be replaced by a person who, according to a source, “worked in a lower-profile capacity developing the story for the original.” Makes you wonder now only who it is, but how they sold the studio on the fact that they are ready to direct.
This will be a challenge for Daley and Goldstein to tone down the dark humor and vulgarity that they peppered through their Bosses script. That is, unless the original story idea being pitched for the sequel has Hader’s character plotting to murder the mayor of Chewandswallow, though I doubt that’s the case. This is another bold step being made by Sony Pictures Animation, who earlier this week revealed plans for Hotel Transylvania with the voices of Adam Sandler, David Spade, Kevin James, Cee Lo Green, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, Fran Drescher and Andy Samberg.
