When Weird Al Yankovic's UHF was released back in 1989, the idea of doing a sequel was rather preposterous, given the film's underwhelming performance at the box office. But now that the movie is considered a cult hit, does that mean there's a chance that we could ever see UHF 2? While some fans might want the answer to that question to be "yes," the movie's writer and star is serving up up a hot plate of disappointment.
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of UHF's release, Weird Al Yankovic sat down to talk about the film's legacy with Yahoo!, and towards the end of the conversation the idea of a sequel was pitched to the famed comedy singer/songwriter. But while Yankovic does have fond memories of the production and the movie itself, it turns out the idea of UHF 2 isn't something that he is necessarily personally interested in. Said the artist,
"Probably not. I mean, that’s something that I’ve been asked a lot and fans have offered to start Kickstarter [campaigns] and tried to crowd-source it, but if I were to do a whole new movie, my first choice wouldn’t be to do a sequel to UHF. I know that by and large major motion picture studios aren’t anxious to finance sequels to movies that bombed 25 years ago [laughs]."
This is news that one can imagine that will get a mixed reaction from fans. On the one hand, unnecessary sequels are some of the worst movies being produced in Hollywood, and if there's no real creative motivation behind it you really don't want UHF 2 ruining the legacy of UHF (a legitimately fantastic movie). That being said, the meta humor of Weird Al's film was years ahead of its time, and if put into the context of the internet age, a sequel with the same kind of spirit could be absolutely brilliant.
The best news in all of this, though, is the fact that Weird Al Yankovic isn't entirely over being part of Hollywood. It doesn't sound like there's anything specifically in the works right now, but never say never. Earlier this year he successfully rejuvenated his music career, so who is to say that he can't do the same with Hollywood?
While we sit and patiently wait for Weird Al to make another movie, I would recommend heading over to the Yahoo! interview to read some fun behind the scenes stories about the movie - and go to Page Two to watch a montage of some of UHF's best clips:
