Brendan Fraser will be staying above ground for the foreseeable future as the actor has passed on appearing in a follow-up to his 2008 family adventure film Journey To The Center Of The Earth.
Fraser had been heavily pushing for studios New Line and Walden Media to bring the original film’s director Eric Brevig back to direct the sequel, hinting strongly that his own participation would depend on it. Brevig is currently deep in production on the live action-CGI hybrid Yogi Bear and New Line, Walden and Journey‘s distributor Warner Brothers all want Journey 2 as quickly as possible and aren’t willing to wait for Brevig to finish his current duties. Like the first Journey To The Center Of The Earth, the follow up will be produced in 3D.
Sliding behind the camera for this second installment is Brad Peyton, whom Warners is reportedly excited over how his upcoming Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore turned out.
With Fraser out, the script will need to be overhauled to move Josh Hutcherson’s character Sean, nephew of Fraser’s Prof. Trevor Anderson character, to the lead of the film. It sounds like a major rewrite will be needed, and that it will need to be rushed in order to meet the production demands of getting the effects heavy film in to theaters by next summer. This does not bode well.
Via Deadline.
