So SKYLINE looks to be this year’s DISTRICT 9, where a sci-fi movie with a low budget ends up looking like a million bucks through suprisingly well executed CGI. I suppose the tech is getting cheaper these days, but it is extremely impressive for this film to look as good as it does on such a microscopic budget ($20M) at least compared to other similarly styled blockbusters.
Our boys at Arrow in the Head recently interviewed co-director Greg Strause and co-writer Liam O’Donnell who said they already have part of a script ready for SKLYINE 2 if the movie makes a fraction of what a normal blockbuster would. Here’s what they had to say specifically:
“We had ideas, we want to keep doing it,” O’Donnell said.
Strause continued, “Liam and Josh Cordes already have a treatment put together for it, because there’s business aspects… the foreign distributors, they want to know you’ve already got it figured out, it’s all mapped out.”
“We did all this heavy lifting to get these characters into a really cool place, and we want to keep telling that story. It’s a lot of fun, it’s a fun world,” said O’Donnell.
After I kidded them that SKYLINE 2 was now official, Strause said, “There’s a headline out there like, ‘SKYLINE 2 ready to go unless SKYLINE 1 flops.'”
“We’ve got a ten million dollar budget, I mean do the math”
So presumably if the thing makes a profit, they’ll be ready to go, as it’s clear Hollywood loves nothing more than sequels to low budget movies, though this might be a first in the sci-fi genre, rather than the trend of pumping out PARANORMAL ACTIVITYs and SAWs.
Will it be profitable? With the amount of publicity pouring into this thing, I have to imagine it will be. Combine that with some good reviews and it would be hard for it NOT to surpass its own budget. But how much is being spent on that marketing? Is that factored in?
In any case, SKYLINE opens November 12th opposite Rachel McAdams’ barely publicized MORNING GLORY and the “OMG why won’t this train stop?” Tony Scott joint, UNSTOPPABLE. DUE DATE and MEGAMIND open the week before, so it might have some lingering competition there. Do you think SKYLINE will be a sleeper hit?