Update: We’ve just confirmed with Stiller’s publicist that this story is not true. He is currently “in rehearsals on Broadway for the play House of Blue Leaves and there is no start date at all for Zoolander 2 at this time.” Read the original story below.
Despite its slight theatrical earnings (for those who don’t remember, it opened to lackluster numbers thanks in part to 9/11 taking place only a week before the film’s release), Ben Stiller‘s Zoolander, an action-comedy about a dim-witted male model (Stiller himself) who is brainwashed to become a terrorist of sorts (you can see the tenderness of the timing), has become a cult classic.
Since the film’s successful DVD second-life, sequel talk has been floating around. Over the last year especially, there’s been good news and bad news on the topic of a sequel, but, for the most part, its been slim.
So it comes as a bit of a surprise that Ben Stiller himself says the film is in production, as in right now:
“We’re shooting the ‘Zoolander’ sequel at the moment. Derek’s going to be back bigger and better than before – no catwalk is safe.”
Stiller on the script, setting and plot:
“It’s ten years later and most of it is set in Europe…I don’t want to give away too much, but it’s basically Derek and Hansel [played by Owen Wilson] ten years later – though the last movie ended on a happy note a lot of things have happened in the meantime. Their lives have changed and they’re not really relevant anymore. It’s a new world for them.”
Both Wilson and Will Ferrell (who played the evil Mugatu in the first film) are set to return in the sequel. Among the slew of Stiller/Ferrell comedies, Zoolander has had a particularly ripe longevity. Also, Stiller’s star power has only shined brighter over the years, deeming a sequel worth the extra expense of bringing now-stars like Ferrell and Wilson back in supporting roles. Let’s hope they save enough money for another Billy Zane cameo. He’s a cool guy.
[Stuff Magazine, print edition of Closer magazine]
Would you pay for another Zoolander movie?