Though Universal Studios has one of the biggest blunders of 2012 to its name after losing $80 million on the horrid Battleship, they also stand as one of the year’s biggest winners among all major studios with hits across board from The Lorax to American Reunion to Safe House to Snow White and The Huntsman.
By far their largest and most surprising success though came with Seth MacFarlane’s crude R-rated comedy Ted, which will shortly cross $400-million worldwide on a budget of only $50 million. Additionally, with The Bourne Legacy still rolling out overseas to solid numbers, Universal has announced it has plans to craft follow-ups to both films.
The studio was fairly confident off the bat with their spin-off “Bourne” property starring Jeremy Renner in place of Matt Damon, with producer Frank Marshall reporting to Coming Soon:
“We’re gonna follow Jeremy’s character. Everything else is wide open. That’s the great thing about this now. The table is set to go any direction we want to. But we will, I’m sure, follow Jeremy and see what happens. Jeremy and Rachel [Weisz].”
Fans were decidedly split on The Bourne Legacy and eyes will be on the sequel to see if Jason Bourne will make a return and reward us with an awesome Damon/Renner team-up. Damon was rather vocal about not wanting to venture into another instalment without director Paul Greengrass at the helm and with replacement Tony Gilroy proving to do a solid job, things don’t look to change in that regard.
As for Ted 2, it would be an utter shock if Universal hadn’t announced either a follow-up or at the very least another MacFarlane original property. They’re clearly giddy over the success of Ted (and rightfully so) which promises to rake in even more cash on home video. NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke was fairly blunt in addressing the further adventures of a certain crude teddy bear simply saying “as soon as we can.”
Personally enjoying both of these films quite a bit, I’m not as jaded as usually regarding a quickly announced sequel. The Bourne films have been playing well as an extended tale since they began and Ted proved funny enough to warrant another go.
Frankly, if you can’t come up with another compelling story for a sentient stuffed animal (and Mark Wahlberg) to be a part of, then I say “for shame.”
Of course, we’ll be sure to keep you posted as these projects develop.
(Source: THR)
