Sequel mania: Watchmen, Fast and the Furious and Enchanted

Headache? Check. Deja vu? Check. Seeing double, triple, and perhaps even quadruple? Check. Hmm, it looks like you have a bad case of sequelitis. Better take this movie medicine fast before it develops into prequelitis.

After the Watchmen movie, the 1986 comic mini-series/graphic novel it was based on became DC’s best selling publication of all time. Until this point, Watchmen had been considered something of a sacred cow and we’ve been spared any spreading of the Watchiverse, in comic, movie or TV form. Here’s why: DC Comics Publisher and President Paul Levitz had put a stop to any ideas of a sequel, respecting Watchmen comic creators Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ wishes to keep the comic free of unpleasant hangers-on or unworthy additions (though Moore had stopped working with DC after completing V For Vendetta in 1989). Levitz even ensured that the Watchmen video game stuck only to the events and characters represented in the graphic novel. But is all that about to change? Levitz stepped down as both President and Publisher at DC in September last year.

Now, it seems that Dan DiDio, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor, has plans to build on Watchmen’s success, making sequels, prequels and spin-offs to both comic and movie. A possible roadblock could come in the form of Moore and Gibbons as they have to be offered first refusal before anything can be published. But, if they don’t want to work on projects themselves, DiDio has been on the look-out for possible alternative collaborators who might continue the Watchmen franchise in their stead.

It seems like a bit of an odd move since Watchmen made only $185,253,487 and cost $130 million to make. Nonetheless, the (nonsensical) plan seems to be to introduce more characters into the Watchman’s world and timeline. There is no escape.

Next on our sequel hot list is Fast 5, the fifth movie in The Fast and the Furious series. Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, director Justin Lin and producer Neal Moritz are all on board to return to the franchise. Fast 5 will see Diesel’s Dom and Walker’s Brian together again, as fugitives on the run from the law. For a crime they didn’t commit –oh wait, wrong film. This pair are probably guilty. Fast 5 is slated for a 2011 release.

We’ve had crime fighting costumed heroes and fast car criminals, how best to end this news item than with a Disney princess story? After the success of 2007’s Enchanted, the only surprise is that its taken this long for news of a sequel to get out. The first movie followed cartoon princess Giselle (Amy Adams) when she was banished from her animated world by an evil queen and left to fend for herself in the cruel (by comparison) real world. Most of the film’s charm came from the naiveté of Giselle – making her own dresses from curtains, teaching New Yorkers to break into song and dance, employing rats and diseased pigeons in lieu of her woodland pals – but can that charm be replicated when the surprise is gone?

Anne Fletcher has been brought in to direct with Jesse Nelson on screenplay and it’s likely they’ll want the original cast back. That means Amy Adams, whose fine performance made the first flick so funny.