It’s okay everybody, Columbia has listened to your wishes and are hard at work developing a worthy sequel to 2010’s Angelina Jolie-starring “Salt.” What’s that? You’re not interested in seeing the further adventures of Evelyn Salt? Well, since the original made nearly $300 million worldwide, you’re going to see a sequel anyway. THR is reporting that the studio has a new writer who is being tapped to take over the scripting duties from Kurt Wimmer, who was hired last year.
“The Prince of Tides” and “Seven Years in Tibet” scribe Becky Johnston is in negotiations to write a new script for “Salt 2” after Jolie refused to sign off on Wimmer’s earlier draft. It makes us wonder how bad his draft was for Jolie to pass on it, especially since the original film wasn’t praised for its stellar screenplay.
It’s no surprise that the studio would kowtow to Jolie’s wishes by hiring a different writer — we advised as much — because without her there is no franchise. But then again, that presumes that there is enough interest from audiences in seeing a followup. But then again, if stuff like "Taken 2" — a barely coherent retread of the original — gets rewarded with even bigger box office, well, we reap what we sow, folks.