A sequel to RED is on.
Summit has hired brothers Erich and Jon Hoeber, who wrote the script for the hit action movie, to return to the keyboard to pen a second installment.
A sequel is not greenlit at this stage, nor are there any deals with actors Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich or director Robert Schwentke.
But Summit’s pulling the trigger for a second helping of over-the-hill special ops agents shoot-’em-up, scooped earlier Monday by Collider, was inevitable.
The movie, with a budget in the $60 million range, opened to $21 million in October and proved to have staying power, crossing the $90 million mark over the weekend. It has made more than four times its opening, a rare feat in box-office performance, and its overperformance happily surprised Summit execs and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. The movie also was nominated for best picture in the comedy/musical category at Sunday’s Golden Globes.
Sources said it was the crossing of the $90 million threshold that got the company to finally put a sequel in development.
Getting back into RED action starts the new year off with a bang for the Hoebers, who are repped by Verve and who are coming off a strong 2010. In addition to writing Red, the duo worked on Battleship, Universal’s big-budget adaptation of the Hasbro board game, and then came back to Summit to work on its Sam Worthington thriller Man on a Ledge. Ledge is currently shooting in New York.
RED is based on a DC/Wildstorm comic by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner and was one the rare titles that was let out of the Warner Bros. stable. Warners had several chances to make the movie and passed, letting it be shopped around town.
