You know that there are troubles for the sequel of Guillermo del Toro‘s epic sci-fi film “Pacific Rim” when The Hollywood Reporter says that Legendary Pictures has halted its production indefinitely.
The report came after rumours of delays circulated on the interwebs last week. If the word “indefinitely” is any indication, it could mean that the film will arrive much later than expected or worse, getting cancelled entirely.
THR did not explain exactly why Universal is putting “Pacific Rim 2” on hold, but according to Forbes, “Pacific Rim 2” may be getting cancelled for the same reason that Walt Disney pulled the plug on “Tron 3“.
In their trade report, THR wrote about Legendary’s offscreen drama with Universal and Warner Bros. Back in 2013, Legendary inked a 5-year deal with Universal after ending their relationship with Warner Bros. From “Jurassic World” to “Straight Outta Compton” to “Dracula Untold“, both Legendary and Universal succeeded at bringing of some of the biggest hits in recent years.
However, the rest of the films like “Blackhat” and “Seventh Son” did less-than-stellar at the box office. Recently, Universal even declined to team up with Legendary for its “King Kong” prequel, “Kong: Skull Island“. Talks are currently underway between Legendary, Universal, and Warner Bros.
So, it all boiled down to the budget problems.
Del Toro had started making plans for the sequel before the first “Pacific Rim” movie even hit theatres. The first one was a flop at the box office in the US, but it pulled in 3 times its domestic take overseas. With its success overseas, Legendary decided to give the follow-up a green light, with a USD190 million production budget.
But as THR pointed out in their report, the movie was “one of those films that grosses a lot USD411 million worldwide) while being so costly that a follow-up isn’t a sure thing”. It’s easy to understand why these companies might be hesitant about diving into a sequel.
Based on a script by del Toro, Travis Beacham, and Zak Penn, “Pacific Rim 2” was set to be released on 4th August 2017 and the original cast members including Charlie Hunnam, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, and Rinko Kikuchi were expected to return. Del Toro was supposed to begin shooting in November too.
Now that the production has been halted indefinitely, it is unclear if the cast members will remain onboard.
We are, of course, terribly disappointed at this piece of news. Considering how talented del Toro is, this just seems like a wasted opportunity to us. Besides, “Pacific Rim” is not as bad as everyone made out to be. But, what do you think? Sound off in the comments box below.
UPDATE (19th September, 3:38pm):
In the wake of the report about the possible cancellation on “Pacific Rim”, Guillermo del Toro told IGN that it is still moving ahead
“It’s not cancelled,” he told me of the giant mecha versus monsters film.
He explained:
I’m gonna do a little movie in between, if (the studio) deem(s) to approve it. But in the meantime we’re turning in a budget and a script in 3 weeks (on Pacific Rim 2). So it’s still active. I still have my producer working on the budget and I still have the writer working on the script.
He also told ScreenCrush, “I don’t think it will be my next movie, though. It was postponed.”
He added, “We’re working on the budget. We’re working on the screenplay. And I think the need was to send a budget and screenplay that fit. Once that is done, we’ll know if it goes or not. For the moment, it’s not cancelled“.
Well, we sure hope that the film will eventually get made because we look forward to seeing it.
*Thanks Facebook user Jacey King for the tips!
Source: THR.
