"How can the same shit happen to the same guy... three times in a row?" That's a line of dialogue I'm assuming we will hear from Gerard Butler's Mike Banning as his rugged Secret Service agent is going to get yet another chapter in his Has Fallen franchise, this time with Angel Has Fallen.
Banning's going to defend Heaven from terrorists? See, now THAT, I'd actually watch. Instead, according to Deadline, "Angel" is going to be a code name for Air Force One. Which means that Gerard Butler basically will be doing a Harrison Ford impersonation from Wolfgang Petersen's Air Force One. Which sounds like a terrible idea.
While we're on the topic, who asked for another Something Has Fallen movie? The most recent London Has Fallen made significantly less that the original, Olympus Has Fallen (where "Olympus" was the code name for the White House, which was attacked by vicious terrorists). Reviews for both films have been mediocre, but still, box office drives business decisions, and when a sequel earns a little more than half of its predecessor, the idea of stretching the brand usually isn't the best.
The trick is international box. While London Has Fallen whiffed in the States, it did earn $133 million overseas, helping Focus Features earn back some bank. When you factor in the global grosses, London actually ends up edging Olympus by the box office tally of $205M to $161M, so I suppose the accountants are playing that card when greenlighting Angel Has Fallen.
At the moment, Angel Has Fallen doesn't have a director, and the choice will be interesting. Olympus was directed by Antoine Fuqua, but that dude moved on to a series of Denzel Washington collaborations including The Equalizer and this year's The Magnificent Seven. London was picked up by Babak Najafi, and it's possible that he comes back, but that's not part of the initial report.
What we do know is that franchise creators Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt will write the script. But will Morgan Freeman or Aaron Eckhart? Deadline states that Gerard Butler's character will be the target of the terrorists in this chapter, and that the president will be part of the story, but it's not specified if Eckhart will still be the president by the time this sequel starts. Stay tuned for more details on Angel Has Fallen. We'll report back whatever we hear.
