When Escape Plan released back in 2013, it was a pretty success. It grossed around 137 million dollars worldwide, starting from a mere $50 million budget. As a result, it is no surprise that currently there are some plans for a sequel to this movie.
People who are involved have further confirmed that Sylvester Stallone will reprise the role of Ray Breslin as seen in the previous movie. Keep in mind, though, this time he will be seen in more of a supporting role rather than a leading role.
In the meantime, Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided not to return. It was first reported by Deadline that Sylvester Stallone would be featured in the upcoming Escape Plan 2, but they did not mention who will be partnering up with him.
Sly will be portraying a supporting role only which means that there is a good chance that he will play a mentor to a younger character who is probably incarcerated in the same prison where he managed to escape from, in the previous movie.
In Escape Plan, we saw Arnold and Sylvester Stallone, starring in a film for the first time. Stallone played the role of a structural engineer called Ray Breslin, located in the most secure and secret prison in the world. With the help of Emil Rottmayer, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, he secures his escape.
The film had an interesting cast, comprising of actors like Jim Caviezel, Sam Neill, Vinnie Jones, Amy Ryan, Vincent D’Onofrio and Curtis Jackson. Production is going on full-speed with Escape Plan 2. It has been reported that the person who wrote the original, Miles Chapman, is presently working on the script for the sequel, accompanied by Zack Schiller, Randal Emmett, and George Furla, reprising their roles as producers.
The next task is to search for a director to be in charge of Escape Plan 2 since the announcement did not feature Mikael Hafstrom’s name regarding the follow-up. It suggests that he will not be involved with it. Also, they don’t have a lot of time to find someone since 15th January 2017 has already been earmarked to be the day when they start pre-production.
Meanwhile, they will shoot in China and Ohio from 15th March. A ‘major Chinese component’ is one of the powers who is financing the production of Escape Plan 2 and it was an important aspect of having the sequel financed.
Domestically, Escape Plan was a box office bomb, but it only managed 25 million dollars from a 50 million dollar budget. However, it was immensely popular in other parts of the world like Asia. It grossed $40.9 million alone, in China and Japan, it managed, $5.8 million.
The film made $1.8 million in Hong Kong. From the looks of it, the audiences in these regions loved the combination of Arnold and Sly. Sadly, this time only Sly is returning and that too in a supporting role.
Meanwhile, in other news, Millennium Films has declared that it is placing a new Rambo movie in production, without seeking the assistance of Sylvester Stallone, a series star.
Sly said earlier this year that he was finished with the entire Rambo franchise. The studio has managed to tap in Ariel Vromen, Criminal director to be in charge of Rambo: New Blood.
The Hollywood Reporter said that till now, the studio hasn’t decided on a new actor who will portray the role of John Rambo. He was the PTSD-afflicted war veteran, first introduced in the novel First Blood, written by David Morrell, followed by its 1982 film adaptation. It was further transformed by Stallone into a murder monsters series with three subsequent action-packed films.