The long-rumored Bad Santa sequel took another step towards becoming reality today with The Wrap reporting that Billy Bob Thornton is in talks to return to the franchise, being produced by The Weinstein Company in partnership with Miramax.  “Officially in talks” is of course one step closer than the last time we heard about it, when it was Billy Bob reporting that “there’s been talk” of it.  If everything goes well, and Billy Bob starts wearing Harvey Weinstein’s ring, they’ll be considered to be “going around,” and I don’t think I have to tell you how serious that is.  As long as no one accidentally insults The Boxmasters, or makes him sit in antique furniture, or brings up Komodo dragons, everything should be fine.

Meanwhile, Tom Arnold is talking up a True Lies sequel now that Arnold Schwarzenegger is through playing governor. It would be a great role for Tom Arnold, because pretty much anything would be.

“We [Arnold and Schwarzenegger] have both read the script. There is a script that James Cameron and a guy named Jeff Eastin, who created the TV show ‘White Collar,’ wrote. It is really great. Jim can’t direct it. But he can produce it. We hope it gets done. We have a few fun things we want to do. I am supposed to remain cool about this. For me, it would be a lot of fun to work with the guys again.” [Movieweb via Moviefone]

True Lies is one of my favorite James Cameron movies, so I’d love to see a sequel.  But keep in mind, “in talks” and “there’s been talk” are still four to five steps of development ahead of “Tom Arnold really wants to do it.”

According to a report by BoxOfficeMojo, 2011 will feature the release of 27 sequels, an all-time high (the previous high was 24, in 2003).  That number doesn’t include remakes, movies based on toys (Stretch Armstrong), or movies based on board games (Battleship), but on the plus side, it *does* include Johnny English Reborn.  Yay, Mr. Bean!  I like the part where he makes silly faces!

Of the 27 sequels, nine are second movies (Cars 2, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules, The Hangover Part II, Happy Feet 2, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil, Johnny English Reborn, Kung Fu Panda 2, Piranha 3DD [!], Sherlock Holmes 2), up from eight in 2010. Five are third movies (Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked [!!], Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son, Madea’s Big Happy Family, Paranormal Activity 3, Transformers: Dark of the Moon), down from seven in 2010.

Deeper cut sequels will be well represented all the way up to No. 8. There’ll be the highest number of fourth movies ever, tallying five (Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Scream 4, Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part One)). Fifth movies will also have their largest showing yet, numbering five (Fast Five, Final Destination 5, Puss in Boots, X-Men: First Class, Winnie the Pooh) [I initially read this as "X-Men: First Class: Winnie the Pooh," which I like better]. There will also technically be two seventh movies (The Muppets, Rise of the Apes) and one mighty eighth entry (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two). (None of this is counting New Year’s Eve, which may or may not be a sequel to Valentine’s Day, or The Thing, which may be a prequel.)

Ugh.  27 sequels.  The only way that could be worse is if it was a Katherine Heigl movie.  I think I speak for everyone here when I say “Ah, catfarts!”

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Today in trade news, it sounds like Bat Mitsvah DJ Paul Rudd is finally catching a break.  Good for him, such a nice boy.

Universal Pictures has signed Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann to star in the Untitled Judd Apatow Project.
featuring an original story with characters created by Rudd and Mann in Knocked Up.
Apatow is writing, directing and producing the June 1, 2012 release, produced by Barry Mendel and Clayton Townsend. [ComingSoon]

So basically, a Knocked Up sequel/spinoff focusing on the Paul Rudd/Leslie Mann relationship.  I’m a Judd Apatow nuthugger from way back, so you throw in Paul Rudd to boot, and I’ll be the first one in line for a ticket, all dressed up like a cholo on Easter.  Hopefully there’s even a part in it for Katherine Heigl, as Leslie Mann’s totally-not-shrewish younger sister who drives well and loves math.

[gif source]

Step Up this week cemented its reputation as the only thing that will survive the nuclear holocaust besides cockroaches and the Saw franchise. Despite having to hire a C-Tates impersonator for the last film and director Jon Chu going off to direct the Justin Bieber biopic, according to ComingSoon, Summit Entertainment took out an ad in Variety yesterday to announce plans to make “Step Up 4Ever”, which I’m sure I don’t have to tell you is the sequel to Step Up 2 the Streets and Step Up 3D.

In the ad, they announce that the studio “looks forward to doing it again in 2012 with ‘Step Up 4Ever’ in 3D.” [ComingSoon]

Aw, hell yeah, girl. And by 3D, we mean Dancing, Dancing, and DEEEEEEEEZ NUTS!  Meanwhile, I got in touch with a source over at Summit and was able to obtain this EXCLUSIVE VIDEO CLIP from the film:

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If you’re James Cameron, how do you top the highest-grossing movie of all time?  You don’t, you just try to make the same thing over again a couple times.  You’d think a guy who made f-you money last year (not to mention f-me, f-your sister, and f any high-priced call girl or Russian peasant I damn well please money) would be able to do what he wants, and James Cameron can, but for whatever reason, he’s always had a bit of a JRR Tolkien bug up his ass about Avatar.  He doesn’t just want to make the movie, he wants to turn it into a trilogy, write the novelizations, invent the language, and draw up an entirely new font for the subtitles to be 3D-projected in.  That is to say, it seems to be a creative decision and not a business decision.  Either that, or hunting human beings for sport is a lot more expensive than we once thought.  First you have to pay off the families, then there’s bribes to the government, the kind of maids that don’t ask questions, then there’s the yacht and the guns and the guys who make booby traps, not to mention the insurance — it never ends!

James Cameron has locked in a  deal with Fox to make Avatar 2 and 3, due in theaters December 2014 and December 2015 respectively.

Said the director in a statement, “Our goal is to meet and exceed the global audience’s expectations for the richness of AVATAR’s visual world and the power of the storytelling. In the second and third films, which will be self contained stories that also fulfill a greater story arc, we will not back off the throttle of AVATAR’s visual and emotional horsepower, and will continue to explore its themes and characters, which touched the hearts of audiences in all cultures around the world.” [HollywoodReporter]

Whoa, I know she died in the first film, but did anyone else just read that as, “Michelle Rodriguez is back, baby!”?   In any case, shrewd business man that I am, I’ve already begun buying stock in the Papyrus font company.