While everyone likes to trumpet the summer success stories of "The Hangover Part II" and "Bridesmaids," one other R-rated comedy fared quite well also, though it hasn't been mentioned as often. "Horrible Bosses" was also a super-sized smash, with the workplace comedy scoring over $200 million worldwide, all on a minimal budget of $35 million. It seems people really like to see bosses getting their commeupance. Well, fans will be happy to know, the trio of Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis will once again face unruly employers as New Line is moving ahead with a sequel.
THR reports that hot screenwriters John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein ("Burt Wonderstone," "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2") have been hired back to pen the screenplay to the followup of their first effort, though obviously, it's too early for plot details. But we doubt parent company WB will want to rock the boat too much (and if "The Hangover Part II" is anything to go by, they'll be content to carbon copy the damn thing). But undoubtedly, the project will likely give some high profile actors another chance to play bad, while the hapless buds figure out what to do. And hoping to make the circle complete, New Line is already talking to Seth Gordon to return to the director's chair (though he's also tossing around a potential "WarGames" remake at MGM right now as well as a long brewing narrative reamke of "The King Of Kong").
As a concept, "Horrible Bosses" was great, but as a film, it didn't quite work. We mostly wish it had gone darker, and we got to spend more time with the bad bosses (Colin Farrell in particular, who was pretty great) but there is still opportunity to improve things a second time around. Either way, the R-rated comedy is the new 3D it seems and without the need for funky glasses.