If you liked seeing Brendan Fraser outrun 3-D dinosaurs in "Journey to the Center of the Earth" last year, you're in luck. According to Variety, New Line has put a sequel into production with Eric Brevig returning to direct, and Fraser and Josh Hutcherson expected to reprise their roles.
The fact that Jules Verne never penned a sequel to his novel isn't stopping anyone at New Line. The studio was considering setting a sequel in Atlantis before discovering a spec script by Richard Outten ("The Adventures of Brisco County Jr"). Outten's script is a fantasy story that imagines "Gulliver's Travels", "Treasure Island", and Verne's "Mysterious Islands" to have all happened on the same island.
The "Journey" producers liked the idea so much that they're retooling it to fit the Fraser and Hutcherson characters. It's probably not coincidence that "Gulliver's Travels" is now hot again thanks to Jack Black, or that "Mysterious Islands" is getting revamped into McG's 20,000 Leagues prequel.
The first film cost a mere $60 million and brought in $240 million at the box office, and went on to have strong DVD sales. It's no surprise that New Line would want a sequel as soon as possible. Judging from the numbers, audiences probably do too, and will probably be thrilled to see 3-D pirates (who feature in all three of the books being squished into one story) even if they're not named Jack Sparrow.
Readers, were you fans of the Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D? Are you eager for a sequel? Or are you tired of Brendan Fraser adventure movies?
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