Olympus Has Fallen Sequel Will Burn London To The Ground

Olympus Has Fallen essentially was a new take on the Die Hard formula, so it only makes sense that the movie would earn a sequel.

ScreenDaily reports that Nu Image will "kick off talks" on London Has Fallen, a continuation of the story of a beleaguered President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and his tough-as-nails personal guard, Mike Banning (Gerard Butler). The site reports that Eckhart, Butler and Morgan Freeman are expected to reprise their roles, alongside Angela Bassett and Radha Mitchell. Original director Antoine Fuqua (Shooter) is not being mentioned with regards to the sequel, though, and ScreenDaily says the producers "are out to directors."

That makes me wonder if Fuqua passed, because when a film performs well at the box office (and Olympus did), the director usually gets the chance to return and build on what he or she has started. Fuqua is in post-production on The Equalizer with Denzel Washington, Chloe Moretz and Melissa Leo, but easily could slide back into the director’s chair for an Olympus sequel if he wanted him to. It sounds, in this report, like the producers want to go in a different direction.

The sequel reportedly will go into production in London on May 5, 2014. The plot will follow, according to the site, "a plot to strike the city [of London] during the funeral of the British Prime Minister. Only the President Of The United States, his secret service head and an English MI6 agent can save the day."

News of an Olympus sequel woke Twitter out of its slumber, and triggered the snark … particularly from supporters of White House Down, which arrived in theaters a few months after Olympus Has Fallen and was significantly less successful at the American box office. Our own Katey Rich lamented:

The jokes just kept on coming.

But the winner of the day clearly was:

I preferred White House Down, which was fun in the places where Olympus was dark, violent and uber-serious. We know the producers can create carnage. Will London Has Fallen lighten things up, or continue punishing audiences (and potentially breaking the bank)?

Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.