It may seem an unlikely candidate for a sequel as it’s a good-enough but mostly forgettable film, but it did rack up 10 Oscar nominations and gross over $200 million worldwide. And in fairness, if those stats were for a movie about aliens or a dude in tights fighting crime, the sequel would’ve been greenlit a long time ago.
For his part, director Peter Weir told the Seattle Times back in 2005 that a sequel was “most unlikely” and that “while it did well … ish at the box office, it didn’t generate that kind of monstrous, rapid income that provokes a sequel.”
So where did Russell Crowe get the enthusiasm for a MASTER sequel? Not really clear. He wasn’t provoked into the possibility on Twitter, he just posted rather randomly.
Most people don’t have Tom Rothman’s e-mail address (and I’m certainly not going to provide it here) but the official Fox Movies Twitter feed picked up on the response and posted the following response: Getting a lot of tweets about Master & Commander sequel, I’ll look into it (I’d love one, too, but as you all know a LOT goes into it.)
Still seems unlikely on all accounts (the movie cost over $150 million) but I suppose you never know what a bunch of Crowe fans can accomplish when they put their minds e-mails to it.