Listen, we get it. It’s far easier for studios to develop spinoffs, sequels and prequels based on pre-existing characters and franchises rather than (god forbid) throwing money behind original, new ideas. But even with that knowledge, Hollywood can still surprise us as Deadline reports that Universal is getting a sequel to the 1999 Taye Diggs comedy “The Best Man” underway. Yeah, we don’t remember that movie either and we’re not sure anybody is asking for new one, but whatever, right?
Proving that half of the work in Tinseltown comes from handshakes at dinner, the idea apparently came out when director Malcolm D. Lee (“Undercover Brother,” “Soul Men“) held a reunion dinner and everyone decided it might be fun to work together again. The studio liked the idea and a new movie was born. It’s an odd move on Universal’s part. While the low-budgeted 1999 flick turned a profit, its $35 million total box office haul is hardly a blockbuster number, but considering the studio has already milked sequels out of their big movies of that year — “The Mummy” and “American Pie” — we guess they figure it’s time to get on to whatever was left over (though we’d much a prefer a “Mystery Men” followup).
There’s no word on what cast members — who included Morris Chestnut, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Harold Perrineau, Nia Long and Sanaa Lathan — might be returning but we figured pretty much all those have got nothing to lose by coming back. Malcolm D. Lee will once again direct and we suppose we now we have an excuse for renting “The Best Man.”