Many offilm history’s classics fall into the disaster genre, but over the past few years, the category hasn’t reached the same heights as it used to. However, the recent Gerard Butler film,Greenland, managed to garner positive critical reception and modest audience engagement upon its release in 2020, and thanks in part to the film’s success, Thunder Road Pictures has now chosen to greenlight a sequel to the disaster film.
Greenlandtold the story of John Garrity (Butler), an engineer who flees with his wife (Morena Baccarin) and young son to secure safety for his family after asteroids strike the earth and guarantee the imminent collision of a meteor capable of causing an apocalypse. The film enjoyed a healthy box office run in international markets but did not release in Americadue to the COVID-19 pandemicand was instead made available to download via Video-on-Demand services. Upon its release, the film was the second-most rented on FandangoNow and the third most rented on Google Play and Apple.
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Thunder Road is moving ahead with the sequel, now titledGreenland: Migration, with Butler, Baccarin, director Ric Roman Waugh, and screenwriter Chris Sparling all returning. The film will continue the story of the Garrity family after the collision of the first film’s meteor, in which they must traverse a decimated Europe in search of a new home. The sequel is set to begin shooting next year. STX Entertainment, the distributor of the previous film, has not been determined to be releasing the sequel.
Rather than showcasing the reaction to a cataclysmic meteor by society at large (in the vein of past disaster films likeArmageddonandDeep Impact),Greenlandfocused primarily on a single family seeking refuge amidst chaos and destruction (a similar tactic utilized byWar of the Worlds), which set it apart from other disaster films. Therefore, it will be exciting for fans of disaster movies to see if the Garrity family will not only survive the apocalypse but stay alive long after it has happened.
Films likeIndependence DayandTitanicdisplayed the film genre’s potential for epic storytelling, but modern films haven’t been capable of recapturing the magic considering films likeGeostormandExtinctionfailed to garner widespread interest. However, it appears theGreenlandfranchise could restorethe natural disaster genreto its former glory should the sequel live up to the reputation of its predecessor.
Greenland: Migrationis in development.
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