Only last month Justin Long had said that the ball was in Ben Stiller’s court when it came to moving forward on a sequel to 2004’s Dodgeball, and that Vince Vaughn had a funny idea for the follow-up. Now it appears that Stiller might be warming up to the idea of revisiting the court because Vaughn has revealed that he thinks “Ben is open to doing it” and the “studio likes” his sequel pitch.
The Swingers actor was speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at the premiere of his new comedy Christmas with the Campbells, where he was asked about the possibility of the long-rumoured sequel ever happening. Vaughn replied “They’ve always talked about these things forever and I had an idea that was fun and the studio likes it, so we’ll see where it goes,” before adding “I think Ben is open to doing it, I think he’s in the same boat as me actually which is if it’s a really fun and great idea then that’s fun, but if it’s just something to go do it again then why?”
Long delayed sequels to comedy classics very rarely capture that same lighting-in-a-bottle formula, think Anchorman or Zoolander 2, and they’re fears that Vaughn shares when he says “You would just want to make sure going into Dodgeball that it feels like a nice continuation and a story that could stand on its own. I think for all of us if it feels right and it’s funny, it would be something to go back to, and if it’s not, it’s just another idea getting kicked around.”
Written and directed by Red Notice helmer Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2004’s Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story told the tale of a group of misfits who enter a Las Vegas dodgeball tournament in order to save their cherished local gym from the onslaught of a corporate health fitness chain. Starring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Justin Long, Christine Taylor, Stephen Root, Rip Torn, Joel David Moore, Alan Tudyk, Jason Bateman, Hank Azaria and Gary Cole, the $20 million budgeted film grossed $168 million worldwide.
Let us know your thoughts on whether they should get the team back together for a Dodgeball sequel, or if you’re happy that they left it all out on the court twenty years ago by heading to our social channels @FlickeringMyth….