Donnie Darko & 9 Other Indie Movies Whose Directors Want To Make Sequels
Despite blockbuster movies getting sequels all the time, whether it’s the upcoming Venom: Let There Be Carnage or the ninth entry in the Fast & Furious franchise, it’s rare to see indie films get the same treatment. Sometimes it’s for the best, as movies like American Beauty don’t exactly scream franchise material. But there have been some great ones in the past, whether it’s Clerks 2, the follow up to Kevin Smith’s cult classic, or Before Sunset, the sequel to the postmodern romance Before Sunrise.
Sequels to indie movies are like gold dust, but the lack of them isn’t because the directors don’t want to make them, and there are actually a handful of filmmakers who would kill to follow up their beloved cult classics. However, whether it's due to lack of fan demand or not having the right story, the sequels are yet to be seen.
10 Jon Favreau - Swingers (1996)
Swingers isn’t just what put both Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughan on the map, but it’s one of Favreau’s best movies too. Having starred in, written, and directed the movie, Favreau has gone on to become one of the most sought-after creators in Hollywood, having directed two billion-dollar grossing movies for Disney.
So going back and following up a movie that had a micro-budget of $200,000 seems unlikely, but he has always thought about what the next chapter would be. The director has said the only reason he hasn’t yet pulled the trigger on going forward with a sequel is because he doesn’t want to potentially ruin the original with an underwhelming follow up.
9 Jordan Peele - Us (2019)
After having his own hugely popular sketch show, Jordan Peele surprisingly became a horror movie auteur. He first found success with the Academy Award winning Get Out, and then with the doppelgänger thriller Us. Though the director doesn’t want to make a sequel for Get Out, he has different intentions when it comes to Us.
The director doesn’t just want to make a sequel, but a whole Us universe. As the movie was left open ended with some loose ends, Peele explained that he has a whole mythology planned out that ties up everything, but how much of that audiences will see is anyone’s guess.
8 Quentin Tarantino - Reservoir Dogs (1992) / Pulp Fiction (1994)
Fans argue back and forth about which of the two is Quentin Tarantino’s best movie all the time, but there’s no denying that his first two movies, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, are two of his best. The beloved director has been wanting to shoot a sequel to both of them for years, and it’d be a crossover movie.
The planned sequel would have seen Vincent from Pulp Fiction and Mr. Blonde from Reservoir Dogs on a wild weekend together in Amsterdam, of all places. However, how likely a sequel is to happen now given that it’s almost 30 years since Reservoir Dogs was first released is a mystery.
7 Greta Gerwig - Lady Bird (2017)
With Lady Bird being set in director Greta Gerwig’s hometown of Sacramento, the filmmaker has said she is not done making films about the town. However, the sequel might not follow the titular character, as Gerwig told Vanity Fair that the follow-up is intended to be more like a “spiritual” sequel then anything. But Lady Bird may appear at some point, as the director expressed that she doesn’t want to direct just one sequel, but three of them.
6 Nicholas Winding Refn - Drive (2011)
When discussing the possibility of a sequel to the ultra violent neo-noir movie Drive, director Nicholas Winding Refn has been pretty inconsistent in what he’s told reporters. In the past he has said that there’ll never be a sequel, that he’d love to make more stories surrounding the nameless protagonist, and that he wants to make a spin-off in which the driver will appear. But considering how the movie is based on the novel of the same name, the author has written a sequel, so a another adaptation in movie form is long overdue.
5 Bong Joon-ho - Parasite (2019)
Bong Joon-ho has has an incredibly productive past couple of years. The director has written not just one, but two screenplays over the past year, and he heavily alludes to one of them being a sequel to the Best Picture Academy Award winner, saying that it’s “located in Seoul and has unique elements of horror and action." Given how horrifying Parasite is, it’s hard to imagine how gloriously terrifying the sequel could possibly be.
4 Wes Anderson - Rushmore (1998) / Darjeeling Limited (2007)
Being an auteur in many different ways, whether it’s due to his perfectly symmetrical film style or always working with the same cast of actors, Wes Anderson has never shot a sequel to any of his movies. But in a Q&A his peer, Richard Linklater, Anderson explored the idea of making a sequel to Rushmore, which is widely considered his best movie. Rushmore follows a child-genius as he navigates his way through growing up in a prep school whilst being in a love triangle with two of his teachers.
Given that the character is 15 years old, a sequel this many years later could brilliantly explore the character’s life at middle age. But in the same Q&A, the director talked about making a sequel to Darjeeling Limited too, and though the film isn’t quite as celebrated as Rushmore, it’s Anderson’s most underrated movie.
3 Lulu Wang - The Farewell (2019)
Though it’s very likely that she’s joking, director Lulu Wang hinted at a sequel to the incredible bilingual comedy drama in a tweet. As The Farewell is all about Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao,) who doesn’t have long left to live, and her relationship with her granddaughter Billie, the tweet suggested that the relationship could be explored further. Wang hilariously tweeted a photo of Zhao with Robert Pattinson, alluding to the possibility of Nai Nai having found Billie a husband.
2 The Coen Brothers - Barton Fink (1991)
The Coen brothers have a ton of movies under their belts, and they’ve reinvented genres so many times in the past, whether it’s the thriller with Fargo or the western with No Country For Old Men. But because the directing duo are always pushing the envelope, that means they’re never looking back, so it’s unlikely that fans will ever see sequels to their beloved hits like The Big Lebowski.
However, there is one sequel that the brothers want to shoot, and that’s Barton Fink 2. They even have a name for it already, Old Fink, and it seems like the only reason they haven’t shot it yet is because they’re waiting until John Turturro, who plays the titular character, is old enough. But considering the movie is now 30 years old, it’ll have to happen soon.
1 Richard Kelly - Donnie Darko (2001)
There has already been one sequel to Donnie Darko, which was called S. Darko and followed Donnie’s sister Samantha in a similar storyline. But the film was universally hated and had none of the returning cast or crew of the original.
The writer and director of the original movie, Richard Kelly, had nothing to do with it, but he has recently been talking about how much he wants to work on a proper sequel. Though the movie was originally a giant box-office bomb, it has become a cult hit, and the idea of a proper follow-up would send fans into a frenzy, especially as it’s coming from the original creator.
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