Wall Street 2 & Bull Durham 2??

In some seriously uninspiring news, two studios have decided to move forward with two sequels to some twenty year old titles. Both a sequel to Wall Street and Bull Durham are in the works! Both of these films have no need for a sequel, but has that ever stopped Hollywood before?

Wall Street was directed by Oliver Stone and released in 1987 and Michael Douglas won the Oscar for Best Actor. The film is amazing and despite the two-foot long cell phones, the film is really timeless. It seems that 20th Century Fox feels that one more dip in the Gordon Gekko pool of thought will work. Variety is reporting that Allan Loeb has been picked up by FOX to pen the script which is a re-write of Stephen Schiff’s draft titled Money Never Sleeps. The script follows Gordon Gekko as he is released from prison and returns to the financial world of Wall Street. With today's economy, Wall Street 2 or whatever they will call it, should have alot to cover. The film will not feature Charlie Sheen's character Bud Fox, which is at least one blessing. Edward R. Pressman, who produced the 1987 Oliver Stone-helmed film, is aboard to produce, with no director attached at this time. Michael Douglas seems intrigued at the prospect of returning to the world of Wall Street, but is reserved saying that he would have to read a script before he signs on to be in the sequel.

Bull Durham 2 seems like a much more unlikely sequel, but it seems that the film has steam, and is definately moving forward. The reason this film seems like it would never be made, simply based on the fact that both Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins have both said time and time again, that they would never do a sequel. Well it seems that at least Robbins has changed his tune on a sequel, to at least one of his films.

Writer and director Ron Shelton also for the longest time was against a sequel to his beloved Bull Durham but had some different thoughts after it hit it's 20 year anniversary. Shelton told the Union Sun Times, "For the last year we've been talking about it. I used to say 'You can't do a sequel 20 years later.' Then the fact that it's 20 years later started to intrigue me." Tim Robbins chimed in by saying, "I actually told Ron this idea a couple of months ago. (Nuke) hurt his arm. I want the sequel to open with him at one of those trade shows signing autographs." Shelton took over describing the setup for the sequel, "And you pan from Pete Rose and all these guys getting $350 and $500 an autograph, and there's Nuke and he's getting 15 bucks. And he's really steamed about it because (he was supposed) to get 25." So in the sequel Nuke did not live up to his potential and is extremely bitter about it. Shelton continued, "My view of his major-league career is he went up there and in his second year in the majors he was 18-4. In his third year he was 4-18. It was a sort of an unrealized career in which we saw glimpses of his greatness."

You may ask what is up with Saradon's and Costner's characters. Crash Davis is now managing the Triple A Durham Bulls and has kept his relationship with Annie all these years who is now holds the Faulkner Chair of Oxford Mississippi. The two of them see Nuke in his bitter and drunken stupor and bring him back to the majors by teaching him to throw a knuckleball.

There's no denying that the premise is pretty good for both of these sequels, but do we really need to sully these titles? There still is alot of news to come on both of these as well. Douglas needs to agree to the script and that it is worth him coming aboard for a Wall Street sequel. Kevin Costner has yet to comment on the idea of Bull Durham 2, but again he told Roger Ebert that he would never do a sequel. Tim Robbins appears to be in the mood to revisit his role of Nuke and I am sure his wife Susan Sarandon will be on board if hubby says so.

What are your thoughts on these two sequels? Should we have a Wall Street 2 or Bull Durham 2? Should Robbins and Costner break their no sequels rule for Bull Durham 2? What do you think of the concepts for these two sequels? Strikeback...