In 2007, Disney found themselves with a new mega-hit that was called Enchanted. The movie took that classic Disney hand-drawn cartoon vibe, and brought it to a live-action modern day New York City. The movie went on to make $340 million worldwide, so fans will be thrilled to know that the studio is going full-steam ahead on a sequel, Enchanted 2.
Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, and Susan Sarandon starred in the original, but none are currently confirmed to be returning or not. You can be sure, however, that Disney will be going after them all aggressively. Barry Josephson and Barry Sonnenfeld are returning as producers on the sequel, but aside from that, the crew will be all new. Jessie Nelson has been brought in to write the screenplay, and Anne Fletcher will be directing this time around.
The director change is a fairly large change right off the bat — the original movie was directed by Kevin Lima, who has a pure Disney foundation. Lima worked in the Art and Animation departments on movies like The Brave Little Toaster, The Rescuers Down Under, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast. He also wrote the stories for Oliver & Company and Aladdin before moving on to direct movies like A Goofy Movie, Tarzan, and Enchanted. Original screenwriter Bill Kelly isn’t so much of a big change; his resume includes only a few titles such as Blast from the Past and Premonition.
As for the ladies taking over on Enchanted 2, they may not have the Disney experience of Mr. Lima, but they’ve certainly been around. Director Anne Fletcher also helmed Step Up, 27 Dresses, and The Proposal after her time as an actress in many movies including Titanic and The Proposal. She also worked as a choreographer on a ton of projects like Firefly and The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
As for new writer Jessie Nelson, she penned movies like Stepmom and Fred Claus, and also wrote and directed I Am Sam, which Sean Penn of course won an Oscar for recently *cough*. She also has some acting under her belt, such as playing the infamous Ralph in Mike Myers’ So I Married an Axe Murderer.
As you can clearly tell, Disney thinks that Enchanted‘s appealed best to the females who enjoyed it as a romantic comedy. This would seem to point to why they’ve hired more romantically-experienced film makers in lieu of the family film folks.
[Source: Variety]
The first was a done in one, how do they expect to pull this off?
Comment by korollocke — February 7, 2010 @ 12:47 am
I absolutely adored the first film. It’s one of the only films I can watch regardless of what mood I’m in.
Right now, I’m intrigued more than anything- what is the plot line going to consist of, because the ending of the first film was so nicely done.
Comment by Synesthesia — February 13, 2010 @ 7:04 am
If it has the original cast (Amy Adams & Patrick Dempsey) then it sounds good! Otherwise please don’t bother Disney. There is nothing worse then a sloppy sequel to tarnish the franchise.
Comment by Mary — February 19, 2010 @ 8:26 am
“This would seem to point to why they’ve hired more romantically-experienced film makers”
but that’s why Enchanted worked so well. even though it was disney romantic movie, but because it was done by people who had little experience with romantic movies, it was such a great movie, it wasn’t too disney like, it wasn’t too romantic, wasn’t too comedy and wasn’t too stupid. it was pure happy fun and it reminded me alot of the disney movies i grow up on. like The little mermaid, Beauty and the beast, and The lion king.
i’m fear though the movie may score at the box office it be a cheesy kind of movie.
Comment by Maya — August 25, 2010 @ 2:51 pm
Hope the original cast comes back (at least Amy Adams & Patrick Dempsey)I could see the evil queen having a sister or some other relative who wants to ‘avenge’ the evil queen…..
if the same cast doesn’t come back, then really? don’t bother with it.
Comment by Suz — September 4, 2010 @ 2:00 pm
I love Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, and other movies. But yeah, I agree that some sequels to really good movies really suck. And some movies made from books. Shrek is a good series of movies. But Eragon andThe Lightning Thief were bad. The Li Th didn’t even say anything about Ares stealing the bolt and Percy was in high school and alot of other things. For the book fans, that was a rip-off, otherwise, it was ok. In Eragon, they did tons of things wrong. The Ra`zac don’t die till the 3rd book, Katrina didn’t get taken, Saphira grew up in about 30 seconds, and again, TONS of other stuff. I can’t think of any bad sequels right now, but that’s because I’m still fuming about Eragon the movie. It’ll come to me in about 5 seconds. Oh, gotta go. POS
Comment by Lion King fanatic girl fiddler — December 13, 2010 @ 9:30 pm
The only way this movie would be good is if you brought back the original cast, mostly, Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, and the daughter(Rachel Covey), otherwise why bother? Most remakes to movies suck, so if you’re gonna do it, you must plan out a good script.
Comment by Ava — June 19, 2011 @ 3:15 pm
I don’t mind enchanted 2 will come soon as long has the director make the sequel good and brilliant and if it’s the same cast from the first one then yeah. If not what’s the point
Comment by Gisselle González — August 23, 2011 @ 4:28 pm
Enchanted 2?? Yay!!! I hope they make it! I Wonder what it’ll look like. Can they make it?? I wanna see it! :)
Comment by Anthony Huynh — September 30, 2011 @ 6:47 pm
I do NOT want a sequel. The only way it would work is if the same cast is there, and if the story can equal or better the original… and that’s a tall order. It is a phenomenal movie; I wish they’d leave it alone.
Comment by Ariadna Quijano — July 14, 2013 @ 11:55 pm
You’re not mentioning what an intelligent movie it is. Full of little details that remind us of other movies, full of homages… not to mention that even though the actors could very well have overacted, they never did. The character development is excellent. Oh, I wish they’d leave it alone.
Comment by Ariadna Quijano — July 14, 2013 @ 11:59 pm