Three years ago, Ben Stiller took a night watchman’s job at the Museum of Natural History; $250 million later, it was obvious that movie theater patrons were eager to see his exhibit once again.
Hence, “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” which will come to life in theaters everywhere May 22nd. And once again, Stiller’s secret weapon will be “Reno 911!” stars/hotshot Hollywood writers Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon.
“The big mandate for ‘Night at the Museum 2’ came from Ben Stiller - he is one of the funniest guys you’ll ever meet - and he said the only rule for ‘Museum 2’ was that it had to be funnier than the first ‘Night at the Museum’,” explained Lennon. “And we said ‘Okay, that sounds great; we’ll go from there,’ and the cast started getting better and better, until it was just literally a who’s who of the funniest people in the world.”
That list now includes Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Ricky Gervais, Hank Azaria, Steve Coogan, Ed Helms, Eugene Levy and more. “It really is a very very funny film, and there’s some truly amazing people in it,” Lennon marveled. “Not the least of which is Christopher Guest, Nigel Tufnel, the lead guitarist for Spinal Tap.”
The most memorable guest star in the new film, however, might turn out to be an enormous ex-president in a stovepipe hat. “[The best new living exhibit] for ‘Night at the Museum 2’ was certainly Abraham Lincoln - you know, there’s not every kind of movie where you can say ‘Wouldn’t it be great if a 19-foot-tall Abraham Lincoln comes in and kicks everybody’s ass?’” he laughed. “You’ll see that that’s pretty much what happens… like, he’s the major hero of the film, and that’s a rare opportunity to get to do something that cool.”
An opportunity so rare, in fact, that Lennon and Garant can’t wait to write the next film.
“I hate to be superstitious and stuff, but you know, obviously it would be nice to do a ‘Night at the Museum 3’,” he admitted. “We’ll see how this one goes; I don’t like to jinx it.”
Lennon wasn’t afraid, however, of jinxing all the sequels after that third film. “Let’s do 4 through 8 back to back,” he said of more “Museum” films. “By 8, they might be wearing thin. Or maybe not.”
In your opinion, where does the original “Night at the Museum” rank amongst Ben Stiller’s greatest movies?
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