The film festival at Cannes has begun, a time when the movers and shakers in the industry get together, and much dealing is done. The first really interesting news, to me at least, is that a sequel to Gareth Edward’s Monsters, one of Fluent in Film’s top ten films of 2010, is on the horizon. The article is here at Total Film, but not a great deal of information is known a this time as the project is still in its infancy. Based on what little we do know, however, it sounds like it is going to be less of a sequel per se, and more of a separate story told in the same universe.The brilliance of Monsters was its subtlety. It was set in a world where alien creatures were roaming a large section of South America, but that was more of a backdrop for a very human, personal relationship story. The idea of a sequel, particularly following different characters against the same backdrop, almost flies in the face of that idea. By re-using that backdrop, it is almost like admitting that it really was the extra terrestrial threat that was the true star. This of course will do nothing to devalue the original film, and with a new director and writers at the helm, it has the potential to be a completely different film. The question is, with the original’s worldwide gross less than the overall budget for the follow-up, is there any value in even using the Monsters name to bill it?
Well, yes and no. Whilst I think it would cheapen both films to clap a Monsters 2 tag on any follow-up, I have a feeling they may well use a different name anyway, or at least avoid the use of numerals in the title. It is testament to Edwards’ fantastic world building ability that there is interest in making another film in it, without any of the original movie’s characters. There is definitely a lot more to explore about the creatures themselves, and if they avoid turning into too much of a generic monster movie, so to speak, there is definitely an intriguing sci-fi tale to be told.
It has been suggested that a wider variety of creatures will be introduced, and with a higher budget this will certainly be viable. We are also promised more action. The plot apparently centres around a pair of brothers looking for each other in the infected zone. This brings the possibility of another great relationship story, albeit with a different dynamic to the original, and I am very interested to hear more about exactly what kind of tone writers and director are looking towards. Gareth Edwards’ Monsters took us all by surprise, a movie with very little hype that turned out to be one of the most interesting films of last year. Monsters 2, or whatever it gets called, will not have this element of surprise, so everyone involved have a lot of work on their hands to do the now-franchise justice. I hope very much they do?
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