ROUNDERS Sequel Moving Forward with Damon, Norton, and De Niro
Miramax founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein are teaming back up with the company that they left in 2005. They've signed a deal with them that allows them to regain control of the Miramax library!
The first movies they are pushing into production will be sequels to Best Picture winner Shakespeare in Love and the cult poker film Rounders! Rounders is one of my favorite movies. I just watched it again the other day, and damn, it's good! I'm not sure what a sequel would look like, but Harvey Wienstein had this to say about it to Deadline,
"I’ve discussed making Rounders 2 with Matt Damon and I would say that’s going to be instantaneous. The guys [writers David Levien and Brian Koppelman] have a great idea, a way to make it more international where you start the card game in Paris, that’s all I want to say. There might be a certain beautiful Parisian actress involved in it, and then we’re off to the racetrack and Vegas with Matty and Edward Norton, and a new supervillain to replace John Malkovich."
They want to cast Robert De Niro in that villainous role, which would be perfect! I'm sure they'll be able to land him. I'm really excited that a Rounders sequel is coming! I think it has the potential to be really great!
You know what I'm not excited about? A Shakespeare in Love sequel. Even though it won an Oscar, I can't help but think a sequel would bomb in every way. It just seems like such a terrible idea. When talking about that, Weinstein said,
"I personally have never made a sequel, but I will make Shakespeare In Love as one. I’ve always wanted to do that and now we have the impetus to."
We'll see how that turns out. They also plan to start developing develop TV series based Good Will Hunting, Swingers, and Flirting with Disaster. Those should all end up being interesting projects as well. It's hard to imagine Swingers without Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, though.
In the end, I'm just happy that we are going to get a sequel to Rounders!