Sometimes an attempt at a female-led comedy doesn’t turn out as successful as Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids and you end up with something like Bad Teacher. Despite not being received too well by critics, Sony has announced today that they will be bringing us a sequel to the Cameron Diaz-starring film.
Many found Bad Teacher to be a disappointment. The main complaint seemed to be that the unconventional teacher really was not all that bad. Irresponsible and rude, yes, but not shockingly bad. In spite of this, the movie went on to bring in $216 million worldwide and these earnings led Sony to decide to make a sequel, as is the usual response to a movie with a high profit value.
Jake Kasdan will return as director, working from a script by Justin Malen, who previously wrote Black List. The scribes of the first film, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, will be producing alongside Jimmy Miller and Kasdan. Cameron Diaz is in negotiations to reprise her role as the foul mouthed teacher Elizabeth Halsey but the appearance of Justin Timberlake and Jason Segel, both of whom made the first film bearable, is uncertain.
The only known detail of the plot was given by Columbia’s president of production Hannah Minghella. According to her, the sequel “takes the characters in a new direction that is fresh and fun.” That’s really not much to go on and unfortunately, it may be a while before we get anything concrete.
Should Diaz return, this will be her third time working with Jake Kasdan. Both Diaz and Segel are collaborating with Kasdan for Sex Tape, where a married couple decide to reinvigorate their relationship by making a steamy video which then goes missing. This film is also under Sony, and will be released next year.
The bar has been set high for R rated comedies since no holds barred movies such as Ted and The Hangover turned out to be ultra-successful at the box office. Perhaps the filmmakers will learn from their mistakes and make Bad Teacher 2 more than just a little mischievous. We can only hope.