Sometimes a sequel is nothing more than a meaningless paycheck for a director and his cast, because it’s an opportunity for a studio to return to the well and milk a successful title one more time. But not for a true artist like director Simon West, who is currently trying to raise cash for the action comedy Salty through the new go-to method of crowdfunding, while mulling a potential return to the summer blockbuster action franchises. While West told Screen Daily that he specifically has his heart set on an adaptation of a children’s fantasy book that he wrote, the most important question of all was also posed:
What about Con Air 2?
Asked if he could he be tempted to return to action classics Con Air or Tomb Raider, West added: “There are always rumours about a Con Air 2.
“I would do it if it was completely turned on its head. Con Air in space, for example – a studio version where they’re all robots or the convicts are reanimated as super-convicts, or where the good guys are bad guys and the bad guys are good guys. Something shocking. If it was clever writing it could work.” (Via Screen Daily)
First thing’s first – how about we ease up on throwing the “action classic” label around so easily? I mean, Tomb Raider was decent and all, but it’s not going to take up a significant chunk of time at Angelina Jolie’s eventual lifetime achievement award speech at the Oscars.
As for the continuing adventures of Cameron Poe, Intergalactic Ranger, I’m pretty sure that just by mentioning this idea, it has to happen now. We know that Nic Cage will do just about anything for a paycheck or sack of dinosaur skulls, so the question would be whether or not John Malkovich would be down for a sequel. “But Burnsy, Cyrus the Virus died at the end of Con Air, how would Malkovich come back?” Um hello, the sequel would take place in outer space, so he could be a cyborg or they could have his DNA stored away for studying why he was so violent or whatever, and an alien accidentally drinks it. This is Con Air, it’s not rocket science.