With worldwide take of $161 million on a budget of $70 million, a sequel to Olympus Has Fallen has gotten the go ahead with a planned October 2nd, 2015 release date. Most action films have hopes of achieving a trilogy or some sort of ongoing character that can be utilized in other ways and this one is attempting to do that. Gerard Butler will return for the sequel written by Creighton Rothenberger & Katrin Benedikt and Christian Gudegast. The film is being produced by Gerard Butler, Alan Siegel, Mark Gill, and Matt O’Toole. Avi Lerner, Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson, John Thompson, Christine Crow, and Focus Features CEO Peter Schlessel will executive produce.
Schlessel stated, “OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN took audiences by storm, and we’re excited to raise the stakes with LONDON HAS FALLEN as Gerard Butler returns in the lead. Moviegoers can expect another action-packed thrill ride.”
Plot concept: The sequel to the worldwide smash hit “Olympus Has Fallen” begins in London, where the British Prime Minister has passed away under mysterious circumstances. His funeral is a must-attend event for leaders of the Western world. But what starts out as the most protected event on earth, turns into a deadly plot to kill the world’s most powerful leaders and unleash a terrifying vision of the future. Only three people have any hope of stopping it: the President of the United States, his formidable secret service head (Butler), and an English MI-6 agent who rightly trusts no one.
….. OK, the first one wasn’t awful. It was surprisingly decent. And they really worked to create a background for Butler’s character and a relationship between him and the President and his family. One of the reasons the movie worked was because of this strong bond Butler’s character had with the President’s family (and the tragedy surrounding it). It also worked because the character knew the White House like the back of his hand and was able to take down the bad guys with this knowledge. Now they want to throw him someplace foreign which…I guess is a good twist? He won’t be as effective.