EXCLUSIVE: Director Evan Goldberg tells Screen he is up for a sequel - but Seth Rogen might need some convincing.
Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, the duo behind Superbad and Pineapple Express, were in London this week to promote their new comedy, which is released in the UK by Sony this weekend.
With the $31m-budgeted spoof about six friends facing the apocalypse having grossed $57.8m after two weeks in the US, Screen asked Goldberg about the prospect of a sequel.
“If you ask me, I’d say there’s a good chance of sequel,” said Goldberg, who co-directed the comedy with Rogan. “If you ask Seth, he’d say no. So, we’ll see.”
Real-life friends James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson star as the six friends fending off the apocalypse, while there are cameos from the likes of Rihanna, Emma Watson, the Backstreet Boys, Channing Tatum and Paul Rudd.
Corralling that level of talent for a follow-up film would pose a challenge, according to Goldberg, who said: “We lucked out that they were all available. I honestly don’t know if we could get the guys together.”
That hasn’t stopped Goldberg, Rogen and their Point Grey Pictures outfit from brainstorming possible plotlines.
“We actually talked about doing a sequel where it starts at the premiere of This is the End,” Goldberg revealed. “Seth’s a cokehead in this version, Michael Cera is a calm dude with a boyfriend, Rihanna and The Backstreet Boys are back.
“We have a lot of ideas: a heaven and hell, for example, and a garden of Eden version where Danny [McBride] is Adam.”
Click here for the full interview
Next up on the directorial slate for Goldberg and Rogen is comedy The Interview, in which James Franco and Rogen will respectively play a talk show host and his producer who unwittingly get caught up in an assassination plot against Korean dictator Kim Jung-un.
Sony is backing again, with shoot due in October.
Goldberg and Rogen recently produced comedy Townies, starring Franco, Rogen, Rose Byrne and Zac Efron, while in development are Jamaica, written by 50/50’s Will Reiser, in which a teenager travels to Jamaica with his grandmother, and a sequel to hockey comedy Goon.
No comments yet