Mike Myers would like to make a fourth Austin Powers film.
The Hollywood Reporter has a nice oral history piece on Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery, to commemorate the film’s 20th anniversary. It’s a great piece and well worth your time. But we’ll excerpt something from right at the end, where Meyers – who wrote the comedy as a tribute to the films that his father had introduced him to growing up – had this to say about continuing the franchise.
I would love to do another, but you just have to see. I was devastated by my father’s death. But to have that turn into something that makes people happy is unbelievably satisfying. It’s that kind of stuff you never get used to or get tired of.
Myers may have never gotten tired of the character or franchise, but to many, the films were a prime example of the rule of sequels yielding diminishing creative returns. For a while, the films were a definite part of the pop culture zeitgeist. But as is often the case with such things, as quickly as it was embraced, Austin Powers became as passe as a 1960s one hit wonder band.
And let’s not forget that the spy spoof trilogy did gross more than $676 million at the worldwide box office. Myers undoubtedly got a rather healthy share of that. So a return could be seem enticing on both a creative and financial level to the comic performer.
But Myers collaborator on the films, director Jay Roach, is much more tempered on the chances of a fourth film happening, repeating some things we have heard from him before.
We have talked about [making a fourth movie] for 15 years. We have also always said we don’t want to do it unless we came up with something that lived up to the concepts in our mind. Until Mike feels like he has a concept that earns a fourth, it won’t happen. But if it did, we have all agreed that we would be delighted to get back into it.
