Three idiots get themselves involved in a series of murder plots and get out of it with their lives, barely. What on earth would possess them to get in trouble again? Every sequel has to answer that question in one way or another, but it's a tougher one than usual for Horrible Bosses 2, which as you can see in the above photo tweeted by Jason Bateman, has kicked off production.
The picture reveals pretty much nothing whatsoever, and the details on the story for the movie have been hard to come by, possibly thanks to some shakeups among the talent behind the scenes. Horrible Bosses director Seth Gordon had been slated to return alongside stars Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day, but he dropped out in early August, reportedly due to scheduling issues. That was a pretty abrupt departure for a production scheduled to get started a month later, and it could have meant disaster, but then Sudeikis emerged with a comedy hit of his own, We're The Millers. Reuniting with Horrible Bosses star Jennifer Aniston (who's not currently slated for the sequel), Sudeikis led the comedy to a surprise $125 million gross, making a strong calling card both for Sudeikis as legitimate star and for the film's screenwriters, Sean Anders and John Morris. Earlier this month the duo signed on to the Horrible Bosses sequel, with Anders set to direct and Morris on board to produce.
Anders and Morris had already done a pass revising the script from John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the co-writers of the original film, so Horrible Bosses 2 has officially done a complete creative overhaul, and all on a remarkably fast timeline. That sounds off a lot of alarm bells, as does the entire idea of a sequel to a comedy that truly seemed intended as a one-off. But as the massive success of the wretched The Hangover Part II, no comedy sequel is a bad idea when there's money to be made.
I never would have guessed that Sudeikis would be going into this sequel with the strongest resume, but he's the clear MVP of the summer season, despite how busy all three were. Day did some funny and energetic supporting work in Pacific Rim, but the character turned out to be divisive, and the film's lackluster box office in the United States came as a disappointment. Bateman should have been triumphant this summer, returning as Michael Bluth on the hugely touted return of Arrested Development, but the fourth season of the show was a mixed bag, and seemed overmatched in hype by Netflix's other new offering Orange is the New Black (Netflix doesn't release numbers on viewership for these shows, so we have no actual way of knowing how it panned out). Sudeikis, on the other hand, led a bona fide hit, and as he goes into his first year away from Saturday Night Live, he seems poised for one of the strongest movie careers for an SNL alum since Will Ferrell. Even Kristen Wiig, with her Oscar-nominated screenplay for Bridesmaids, hasn't notched two comedy hits the way Sudeikis has.
Horrible Bosses 2 doesn't have a set release date, but I'd count on seeing it sometime next summer. Can you get over the natural skepticism about comedy sequels to look forward to this one?
