Pixar and director Andrew Stanton are putting the pieces together for Finding Nemo 2 and today, they have announced that Albert Brooks will be reprising his role as Marlin. Aiming for a 2016 release, with Ellen DeGeneres attached to reprise her role from the first film too (Dory), things are looking pretty good for this sequel to the 2003 animated hit.
Of course, it’s way too early for plot details but with Stanton, DeGeneres and Brooks on board, you can be sure that Finding Nemo 2 will make just as big of a splash as its predecessor did.
At least we hope it does, seeing as the studio apparently had to shell out quite the paycheck to get Brooks on board. Since the first film, the actor has been doing quite well, giving great performances recently in films like Drive and This Is 40. So this time around, he drove a bit of a hard bargain when it came to signing on. All is squared away now though and he’ll officially be reprising his role.
Despite the big paycheck that went out to Brooks, the studio isn’t the only one who has a lot riding on this film. After the debacle that was John Carter, Andrew Stanton needs a hit as well. Given the success of the first film though, I don’t think anyone has anything to worry about when it comes to Finding Nemo 2.
On that note, apparently the studio isn’t giving up on Stanton as a live-action director and they are willing to give him a second chance. No word yet on which project they are prepping for him but let’s hope it doesn’t suffer the same fate that John Carter did.
Ok, maybe that’s not fair. I actually somewhat enjoyed the film, it wasn’t all bad. But the box office numbers and review scores were enough to destroy a bit of Stanton’s credibility. That being said, the director still has films like Finding Nemo and Wall-E under his belt, so I think there’s still plenty of goodwill left out there for him.
Back to Finding Nemo 2Â though, tell us what you think. Are you happy to see Brooks sign on?