Paul Feig: Open to ‘Bridesmaids 2

For two weeks in a row Bridesmaids has far surpassed box office expectations, and has already been dubbed the first comedy smash of 2011. This is especially impressive in that going into release, the film had three strikes against it: 1) It was a comedy with no A-listers to grab notice. 2) As an R-rated comedy, it couldn’t depend on the huge youth market to boost box office receipts. 3) It’s a female-fronted comedy, which means it had to fight the chick-flick label at every turn (not to mention unfair yet potentially deadly Sex and the City 2 comparison).  So, basically Bridesmaids succeeded despite the popular wisdom of many media watchers (including Nikki Finke) – but why?
To put it simply, it’s riotously hilarious. While critics are arguing the particulars, the overall opinion is that the writer, Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumulo, laid some amazing groundwork with a script that was relateable and hysterical. Then Judd Apatow did his thing by adding in some signature gross-out slapstick (the intro awkward sex scenes, the explosive dress shop scene) – that would get word-of-mouth spreading like wildfire. Next, Paul Feig, the creator of Freaks and Geeks, came into to wrangle a cast of sidesplitting performers that included Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Jon Hamm, Chris O’Dowd and Melissa McCarthy. But beyond getting laughs out of his whip-smart cast, he wrung out some poignancy in the payoff, making a film that was as funny and moving as Apatow’s mega-hit The 40-Year-Old Virgin. When you look at it like this, Bridesmaids‘ box office makes a lot of sense – except that risks like this (that ignore the three strikes listed above) are rarely taken. This one was a go largely because of the influence of Apatow.
Of course, now that Bridesmaids has proved bankable, producers all over Hollywood will rush to churn out similar fare in hopes of pulling in audiences in droves. And Bridesmdaids’ own producers may well be on the bandwagon. According to Feig, who recently spoke with Vulture about the comedy’s smashing opening, the possibility of a sequel has already been raised:

Who knows? I mean, it depends how we do in the next couple weeks, but I know there’s definitely … it’s already been brought up. So, um, you know, when you get a group that’s this deep and this good, it’s a crime to not use them again. You just want to make sure that you do it as well as you did the first one and try to make it better, even. So, we’re up for the challenge.

As much as I’d love to see some of these characters again, I cringe at the idea of a sequel because – yes – most sequels are unforgivably bad. But notably, Apatow hasn’t looked to repeat his past successes through that means. Of course, he does do spin-offs like Get Him to the Greek (spawned from Russell Brand’s character from Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and he has been looking to make a spin-off feature centered on the squabbling married couple played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann from Knocked-Up. So, maybe that’s a more probable production that a straight-up sequel.
We’ve previously reported that Melissa McCarthy, the breakout comedienne of the cast, has already lined up two new vehicles for her go-for-broke comedy stylings. While one is a road movie about a woman seeking to hijack the Stanley Cup to inspire her ailing husband, the other is said to be a rom-com re-teaming with Feig. Could this be the possible Bridesmaids “sequel”? Is it possible that rather than retread Wiig’s storyline (and thereby detract from Bridemaids’ narrative), producers will spin-off and follow up on Megan’s tale? Maybe with her onscreen lover/real-life husband, Ben Falcone? Now, that’d be something I’d like to see! For her part, McCarthy would be game, saying:

I will show up wherever these guys tell me to go. If it’s a play in their backyard, I will gladly do it. I’ll do kids’ parties for them, I’ll do bar mitzvahs; I’m in.

Well, for my part – if McCarthy’s involved – I’m in too!
Would you be interested in Bridesmaids 2?