3 Informal Sequels Spawned By Get Him To The Greek

I honestly think more studios should do this – take a lovable character you can stomach and spin that ‘ish off into its own movie. Keep doing that until you’ve almost completely sucked the franchise dry then return to the first main characters. I’m not talkin’ remakes or reboots; I’m spittin’ ’bout new, fresh storylines with characters that are also relatively new and fresh to the franchise. Judging by your confused expression, I’ll provide suggestions:

Spider-Man 4

Green Goblin’s private weapons manufacturing corporation has gone underground to enlist a society of genetic engineers that catch on to Petey Parker’s racket. They capture him, extract his DNA, and build an army of spider-men to send overseas to fight in the war against the New Axis of Evil. Unfortunately, Peter becomes a shell of himself in the process and secludes himself in a remote destination. Though the Spider-Men military force is initially successful, the long term effects cause the veterans to lose their mind and turn on anyone not infused with the Spider DNA. To battle the Spider-Men, Parker’s high school foe Flash Thompson is enlisted after his suicide attempt (making him sympathetic to the audience) completely transforms him, unlocking a dormant super power he can “lend” to others. Spidey 5 sees Flash’s powers go dormant again but one of the people he touched permanently inherited them. You could eventually come full circle back to Parker and Mary Jane.

Fight Club 2

Tyler’s plan works. Everyone’s debt is erased. Fight clubs go legit, become incredibly profitable ventures. Scandals are exposed within the government, corruption gone, that is until the Ivy school educated son of a major bank’s CEO vows revenge. Material possessions define him (think Patrick Bateman) and he misses the life of luxury that Tyler’s new egalitarian society can no longer support. He rises through the ranks of the now PROFESSIONAL Fight Club League and uses his powers to enter politics and win a seat in the Senate. Throughout it all, his girlfriend supports him until the climactic shocker where he finds out his girlfriend doesn’t exist – she died years ago. #3 focuses on dead girlfriend’s twin sister and her quest to bring CEO’s son down.

American Beauty 2

We follow Ricky Fitzas his extremely successful G13 weed farm begins to show cracks in its foundation. Jane’s self doubt leads to a bad boob job in which she dies from a leaky implant. DEA agent (the son of The King of Real Estate) is hot on the trail. Focus would be on DEA agent in #3.

This formula has been done before – American Pie did it with #4, 5, and 6, however, it was a bit of a stretch. A good example would be US Marshals, the follow up to The Fugitive. They’re called “spiritual successors” (or sometimes “informal sequels”) and I think they are the cure for what ails cinema. TV has spin-offs. Most times, those spin-offs are unsuccessful (see “Joey“) but there are some that catch on (“Frasier“). If studios and production companies invested more in expanding the storyline, exploring the depth of periphery characters that strike a chord with the audience and take them in a new direction, maybe half the world wouldn’t groan when they see a sequel. Reboots will lose their luster. Spiritual successors sound cool. Hopefully, Deadpool won’t suck and prove my point it can be achieved on a blockbuster scale.

Anyway, what a long f’n way to introduce “Get Him To The Greek” the informal, spiritual follow up to “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Whereas the characters in FSM have run their course (for now), Sarah Marshall’s sex animal rock star ex Aldous Snow played by Russell Brand hasn’t. And having Jonah Hill realize his dream of becoming his assistant is a great way to launch this new storyline (though Wikipedia tells me he’s playing a ‘new’ character – that’s lame). People are familiar with the characters and they made a decent enough impression on audiences to sustain their attention for 2 hours. Nicholas Stoller, FSM’s writer/director, also is credited with penning and helming the follow up.

The first trailer has just been unleashed on the Tri-dub, which I picked up from Screen Junkies: