Hollywood sequels: Can Bollywood follow its leaders?
That ultimate connoisseur of movies Richard Corliss says in a recent issue of Time magazine that the difference between the US box-office slump of calendar 2005 and last year’s rebound could be attributed to the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel called Dead Man’s Chest.
Pirates’ producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s threequel called At World’s End is to be released in May-June. Others to go the threequel route are Spider-Man 3 to be released in early May, followed by Shrek the Third. And threequels could be followed by fourquels and fivequels!
Production will soon begin on the fourth indiana Jones film. And July will see J K Rowling’s protagonist weaving his magic for the fifth time in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Nine out of the top 10 worldwide box-office hits are franchise movies, with the exception of the overall champ Titanic. Apart from Titanic, the only two movies to gross over $1 billion are the sequel Dead Man’s Chest and the threequel The Return of the King!
All of which should make us pause and wonder whether Bollywood has wasted its time by remaking Don and attempting to redo Sholay. Maybe there is a lesson to be learnt by Bollywood producers from the fact that the Kaun Banega Crorepati TV quiz show to be hosted next Monday by Shahrukh will be called KBC 3 to differentiate it from the earlier programmes hosted by Amitabh.
instead of making Khan repeat Bachchan-lines like “Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahin, namumkin hai”, Don 2 could have begun with the baddies breaking out of jail and gunning down the character played by Amitabh, with Shahrukh being the heroic son who grows up and takes revenge while pretending to be a gum-chewing mafioso!
Last 5 posts in News
- 'Don 2' is a Go! - September 6th, 2008
- Don 2 release met Divali 2009 - August 23rd, 2008
- Chandra Barot planning 'Don 2'? - July 24th, 2008
- SRK to miss his Don sequel? - July 5th, 2008
- DON will ROCK ON !!! - June 13th, 2008
