Those of you who’ve been spending the last thirteen years perfecting your Blue Steel look for Derek Zoolander’s return to the big screen will have to wait a bit longer to show it off, because it doesn’t look like the long-gestating sequel’s coming anytime soon, if at all. The last we heard about Zoolander 2 was two years ago, and despite Ben Stiller’s desire to return to the dangerous world of male modelling, no real progress has been made on the follow-up since then.
On Thursday, Stiller was honored by the Taormina Film Festival, and participated in a Q&A master-class afterwards. Fans couldn’t help asking about the Zoolander sequel, which has supposedly been in the works for about a decade. According to Stiller, the script is undergoing a rewrite at his production company, Red Hour Films, and while the film isn’t a reality yet, he hopes that some day it will be:
“It’s been about 10 years now. It’s going to be old Derek Zoolander. The film’s been discussed and in some way in the works for 10 years, but there are no plans to start production anytime soon.”
As much as I love the first film, I can’t say that I’m too disappointed about the lack of a sequel. If Hollywood has proven anything, it’s that the more years that pass between instalments, the more likely it is that the follow-up won’t be very good. Getting stuck in development hell has a negative effect on a project, and comedy sequels have an especially hard time with recapturing the lightning-in-a-bottle effect that made the original so special. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find many comedy sequels that are better or as good as the first film.
Of course, there’s always the chance that Zoolander 2 exceed our expectations, and I sincerely hope that it does. However, I can’t help but feel that if this film was really meant to happen, and could turn out to be a worthy successor to the 2001 cult classic, we would have seen it by now.
Tell us, are you hopeful for Zoolander 2? Or would you rather Stiller and company leave the first movie alone? Sound off in the comments section below.