A sequel to last year’s Journey to the Center of the Earth is officially in the works, according to Hollywood Reporter. But rather than seek out the lost city of Atlantis, the next adventure hinted at in the first movie, the characters from the first film will explore an island not unlike that of Jules Verne’s 1874 novel The Mysterious Island.
The first film was inspired by Jules Verne’s 1864 novel, A Journey to the Center of the Earth. The sequel’s working title is Mysterious Travels: The Lost Map of Treasure Island.
The story is based on a spec script by The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. writer Richard Outten, Mysterious Travels, which suggests that the classic adventure novels Gulliver’s Travels and Treasure Island also took place on the island from The Mysterious Island.
The original Jules Verne Island novel, includes characters from several previous Verne novels, including Captain Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
The Atlantis theme was nixed for the Center of the Earth movie sequel because of several other similarly-themed projects in the works, including 2012 from 10,000 BC director Roland Emmerich, coming later this year.
It’s expected that Brendan Fraser and Josh Hutcherson will return in their roles as an archeologist professor and his nephew, but according to Variety, neither has yet officially signed for the project.
As with the first film, the sequel will be shot in 3-D.
The first movie was a solid hit, grossing over a $100 million domestically and $240 million world-wide, but the studio, New Line, was reportedly reluctant to commit to a sequel until they saw the DVD numbers, which have been strong.
The film, which was mostly just cheesy fun, was a critical hit as well, earning a 62% “fresh” rating on RottenTomatoes.com.
The announcement of the sequel makes Fraser the star of two ongoing fantasy film franchises: this one, and The Mummy movies, a fourth of which is currently in the works. Inkheart, in which Fraser starred in earlier this year, would have been a third franchise, although the movie was not a hit (see our review here).
Fraser’s co-star Hutcherson, meanwhile, starred in the fantasy film Bridge to Terabithia (2005) and will appear in Cirque du Freak, coming in August. Both are based on popular children’s fantasy novels.
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your in the largest bubble humanity could imagine. hows that fantasy.
I Love Brendan Fraser and his co-star Josh Hutcherson in this movie and I have been waiting for a sequel to this movie since it came out to theaters. I hope that Brendan keeps making movies with sequels because to me they are the best kind of movies. I won’t even read books unless they are in a series of at least 3 books because everytime I read a book or watch a movie that just stops it feels incomplete and I am very big on fantasy because it always makes me for get my troubles even if its only for a short time.
Thank you
The journey to the center of the earth was great and looking forward for the next film……Brendan fraser was the perfect actor to cast for this role. hope than they can continue to do some of jules verne stories into film great writer. I guess they found the jules verne for acting brendan fraser.
I was surprised how much I liked the first so I’m actually glad there will be a sequel.
I loved The Journey to the Center of the Earth, but could’ve done without the 3-D effects. Hope they leave that out of this one.
Really? I liked the 3-D!
I really liked the movie–I thought it had a great sense of humor, like when he answers his cellphone in the middle of the underground sea. But maybe it was because my expectations were so low. Soooo many Jules Verne adaptations have been so bad.
The movie wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. I liked the scene when they were falling–very funny. And I mean who doesn’t love a forest of giant mushrooms?
SQUEAL!!! I loved the movie! Well, ok, i liked it a lot!