After The Hangover grossed over $200 million in the domestic box office, it looks like Warner Bros. is ready to give director Todd Philips and his cast another chance to make them some money. With Zach Galifianakis moving on to some other projects like HBO’s Bored to Death and a few other things, Variety reports that we may be seeing yet another “morning after” situation in as little as two years:
Galifianakis will play one of the two leads in “Due Date”, an Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland script that was revised by Adam Sztykiel. In the comedy about fatherhood, an expectant dad and his unlikely travel companion (Galifianakis) race cross-country in hopes of making it home for the birth of his first child.
Both “Due Date” and “The Hangover 2” will follow the same production track as “The Hangover.” The plan is for the “Due Date” shoot to begin Oct. 6, and the film will be released next year in the first weekend of June, just like “The Hangover.” The sequel will begin production in October 2010 and will be released Memorial Day weekend 2011.
Warner Bros. hired Phillips and Scot Armstrong to begin writing “The Hangover 2” right after early test scores left the studio optimistic that it had a winner (Daily Variety, April 5).
Since it’s June 5th release, The Hangover has grossed just over $222 million, making it Warner’s highest grossing R-rated comedy, putting it past Wedding Crashers and just underneath Beverly Hills Cop for the supreme title, but analysts expect the film to reach that status by summer’s end.