If you missed Shoot ‘Em Up in theaters, well I’m not surprised. No one showed up to see it their first weekend out, and the film’s theater count has dropped rapidly ever since. If the movie ends up being anything other than a flop, it’ll only be because it cost nothing to make. Anything that earns a profit is usually instant fodder for sequel talk, but you’d think the chances of that happening for Clive Owen’s over-the-top action movie would be slim, no matter how much insane fun the thing was.
But the guys over at FS insist a Shoot ‘Em Up sequel is happening anyway. They’ve got a guy they claim is close to the production, and their scooper tells them "it is in pre-production and the leading actors have signed on for the second film.” If that’s true it means that Clive Owen, at the least, will be back. I’m not sure who else they’d bring with him. Paul Giamatti’s character isn’t really in a position for a follow-up by the end of the first movie and that only really leaves Monica Bellucci’s lactating whore character. You can only do so many mammary milk jokes.
The word is that they’re pushing this thing ahead to beat the strike (as everyone is), and you’ve got to wonder if the rush to stockpile movies in case of strike has anything to do with this getting made. Under normal circumstances no way a flop like this gets a sequel, but in an environment where Hollywood is snatching up anything and everything they can shoot quickly well maybe a Shoot ‘Em Up 2 does get made. That of course begs the question: What else is about to get a rushed sequel? Hey Browncoats! Here’s your chance. Maybe there’s still hope for Serenity.
Even more shocking is the notion that they won’t stop with a second film. Back in August Shoot 'Em Up producer Don Murphy talked to ComingSoon about making the movie a trilogy in the vein of Sergio Leone’s classic threequel. If that’s really what they’re doing, it might give them an excuse to bring back Giamatti. As Murphy says, “if you watch that trilogy, they're not really sequels. The same characters come back and the same actors come back, and then they have another story, so there's no reason we can't have all three of these people back in a different story and still call it Shoot 'Em Up 2.”
