The announcement that Universal were planning a sequel to Midnight Run brought about widespread groans among fans of Martin Brest's classic buddy movie.
Those groans turned to howls when it was announced that Brett Ratner would be at the helm, and now Robert De Niro has shared his feelings about the sequel, and it sounds as though it's full steam ahead…
"Somebody approached me," explains De Niro, "a young writer and he said, ‘I’m writing a sequel if you want to [ read it ]’. And I said, ‘Sure! Fine.’ So it’s been going through these kind of changes."
That writer was thought to have been Role Models scribbler Tim Dowling, whose early draft is though to have been passed on to G.I. Joe screenwriters David Elliot and Paul Lovett. As for the plot, De Niro revealed that the son of Charles Grodin's character will be heavily involved.
"Well, [ Jack Walsh is ] helping the son of Charles Grodin [ and ] he’s gotten himself in trouble," he said. "And so that’s where we are and the script is being re-worked again. But I hope to do it. It was a lot of fun to do."
The jury is very much out on this one, although even more worryingly, De Niro also sounded open to the idea of a sequel to Raging Bull !
"If somebody comes up with a great, great script, I’d read it and say, ‘Yeah, it’s great, I’ll think about it, consider it, sure," said De Niro. "Rocky kept fighting until he was 70!" Be afraid. Be very afraid...
