THN have just spend a lovely morning in the presence of Rowan Atkinson, Gillian Anderson and Daniel Kaluuya, the stars of next week’s big opening movie from Universal Pictures, JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN. We’ll be posting a full report from this morning’s press conference next week, but here’s a soundbyte from Atkinson, Johnny English himself, who speaks about the future of the franchise.
Are we about to see multiple English adventures, just like fellow spy series James Bond and the Bourne movies?
“God I hope not” Atkinson jokes, laughing. “Some people say that we’ve been influenced by the Bourne movies, or the changes that have taken place in Bourne and Bond. I think that it would probably be easier to plan a new Johnny English movie than trying to plan a new James Bond movie because James Bond is this constant creative challenge of a character that was created in the 1950s. [He was] a glamourous figure of the cold war and you’re contantly having to adapt it for a new world and now for the 21st century.” He added.
“I don’t envy the pople in charge of James Bond. I don’t know. I suppose that it has potential to be… I get the feeling that [this] film is a better film than the previous one and because of its extra size and glamour and engagement with the audience, I think it’s contemporary enough to have a greater impact in the film world than the first movie, which would be nice. If it soes that then it has the potential to be as small or as large as you like depending on how cleverly you handle it. I’m not particularly ambitious on that front.”
The original JOHNNY ENGLISH was released back in 2003, and it has taken eight years for the sequel to get the screen. In the press conference this morning, Atkinson said that it was always the intention to do a sequel.
“Immediately after the release of the first movie in 2003, there was a thought that we could do a sequel; that there was another film to be made, a better film to be made or made in a different way and the first script meeting that I remember attending for this film was in 2004. We worked on the film for a year and a half or so, and then decided to abandon it and make a MR BEAN sequel instead.” He said.
The actor added: “I’m sorry it’s taken so long [for the sequel to arrive]. It’s down to lazyness. (laughs).”
Atkinson does explain the delay in much more detail, which does make sense; it’s all down to his 100% commitment to his involvement in each project that he undertakes.We will have a full report from today’s press conference next week, and our review of the film will hit the site over the weekend.
JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN is released across the UK on 7th October.
Source: The Hollywood News
