Even if it didn’t go down as one of Judd Apatow‘s most well-recieved films, his latest dramedy This is 40 has taken in a healthy $70 million-plus (over double its budget) at the worldwide box office thus far, and now the director is looking for his next project, one that may continue in the same vein. His recent film followed the life of Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann), after first appearing in Knocked Up, but this next briefly discussed project may focus on another set of recurring characters.
When asked about perhaps rounding out Knocked Up and This is 40 to a trilogy, Apatow told Getty (via HeyUGuys), that he’d be interested in such a film, but perhaps not what one may think. While admitting his interested in Mann and Rudd’s characters, he said that he may want to follow their daughters (and his own real-life offspring), Maude and Iris Apatow. Featured in his previous films he said, “When we first met Maude’s character, Sadie, she was 8-years-old, she didn’t understand where babies come from and know we see her five years later and she’s just cursing and screaming and having teenager problems so I’m thinking that maybe in the next one she’s in college.”
While he also admitted he may just be “lazy and this is a great way to make home movies,” he also had some inspiration. Saying its “fun to see people grow up,” Apatow called out French New Wave director François Truffaut, who revisited his fictional character of Antoine Doinel four additional times after his classic The 400 Blows. While they are certainly playing with different themes, I could easily see Apatow having fun with this. I wouldn’t imagine his college-set film to be as dirty as something as what we may see in a Superbad sequel, but I’d be intrigued if he can capture some of the emotions his daughters would be having at that stage in their lives.
Would you like to see Apatow round out a trilogy?