Genre: Science Fiction/Superhero.
Studio:
Unknown.
Production Company:
Unknown.
Project Phase: Movies Rumored.
Who's In It: Unknown. The principals from the first Buckaroo film expressed their desire to return in a sequel if one should ever come to pass.
Ernest Cline, the script's writer, did some dreamcasting of his own:
Peter Weller (Buckaroo Banzai, unconfirmed); John Lithgow (Hanoi Xan unconfirmed); Jeff Goldblum (New Jersey,
unconfirmed); Ellen Barkin (Penny Priddy, unconfirmed); Clancy Brown (Rawhide, unconfirmed); Vince Vaughn (Perfect
Tommy, unconfirmed); Antonio Banderas (Reno, unconfirmed); Henry Thomas (Rafterman, unconfirmed);
Christopher Lloyd (Lo Pep, unconfirmed).
Who's Making It:
Ernest Cline (Screenwriter); Earl Mac Rauch, Ernest Cline (Story).
(Cline would like to see W.D. Richter come back and direct the sequel. Damn straight!)
Premise: Hanoi Xan is the most ruthless and feared underworld figure in the history of the world, overseeing a vast and intricate empire that has been dubbed by world governments as the World Crime League. From his secret lair nestled deep within the forests of Southeast Asia, he observes and watches the world, influencing it to suit his designs. World leaders pray that this man's gaze does not fall on their lands. He is the human personification of the root of all evil.
Born of Japanese/American parents, Buckaroo Banzai is the one of the world's most-recognized individuals. A leading theoretical physicist and respected neurosurgeon, both him and his closest group of friends, the Hong Kong Caveliers, partake in globe-spanning and intra-dimentional adventures while in-between scheduling their world tour plugging their latest album. He is James Bond, Albert Einstein and Batman all rolled into one.
As the Banzai Institiute prepares to enter into the second phase of testing the revolutionary overdrive thruster, Xan will re-emerge from the shadows to strike the final mortal blow to his beloved enemy. The hatred that fills Xan's veins for all that is Banzai has struck twice in Buckaroo's life: once to murder Banzai's parents, and then again to kill Banzai's new bride. Now, Xan's final attack will be enough to destroy not just the Banzai's Institute's world-class standing and wipe away the iconic status Buckaroo has attained, but to shatter the man himself. To do this, Xan will strike again at the heart of Banzai and murder Banzai's newfound love, the enigmatic woman known as Penny Priddy.
Release Date: Unknown.
Comments: What?? You mean to tell us you've mean you've never heard of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimention before? Y'know -- summer of 1984, starring Peter Weller as Buckaroo and Ellen Barkin as Penny Priddy...that rings a bell, right? No? How about Jeff Goldblum or John Lithgow?
Still drawing a blank? Ok, you must have read a Buckaroo Banzai comic book before. Or listened to one of their Top Ten albums. Or at least know someone who's a Blue Blaze Irregular. What have you been doing -- living under a rock for the past fifteen years?!?
Written by Earl Mac Raugh and directed by W.D. Richter, Buckaroo Banzai has attained a devoted cult following. The movie debuted in the summer sweepstakes of '84 and promptly bombed; Ghostbusters was cleaning up the box office. But if you rent it or catch it late one night on the tube you'll see its charm and originality hasn't faded one bit. Full of snappy dialog and thin 80's leather ties, this was a film that alienated most people because it was non sequiter. Watching it made you feel like it was the fourth or fifth sequel to some film you just completely missed hearing about ever being released. The plot was crazy even by mainstream science fiction standards: man invents device that flings him into the eighth dimention, which is populated by evil Red Lectroids from Planet Ten. Man fights bad guys and wins. Who can't love that?
Ernest Cline was one of the people who loved the film. Cline, an aspiring screenwriter, heard all the talk about cast members wanting to return in a sequel and about the legal snafu the franchise's rights were tied up in. So one day he decided to do something about it: he wrote a sequel and posted it up on the 'net. Cline explains why:
"The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension has always been one of my favorite cult films. Great cast, great dialogue, and a hysterical story. Sci-fi camp at its finest. For years I waited for the sequel promised at the end of the film: 'Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League.' But due to the lack of financial success of the first film, it never got written, or made. A surprising number of the stars of the original film went on to become some of the biggest names in Hollywood.
"A few years ago while I was studying screenwriting I decided to write a sequel for the film myself, just as a writing exercise. I had seen the atrocities that Hollywood had committed when they churned out a sequel to another of my favorite films, Highlander. I was fairly convinced that I could have written a better Highlander II (or III) in my sleep. I didn't want to see the same thing happen to Buckaroo Banzai if a sequel were ever to be made.
"Since I didn't own the rights to the characters I was only able to copyright the story line. I decided to post my first draft to the Internet to garner fan reactions to it, since I couldn't do much else with it at that point. I was amazed at the response. I received literally hundreds of e-mails from die-hard fans of the original film who were kind enough to write and tell me how much they enjoyed my screenplay. That was all the reward I needed for writing it."
Ah, the Internet. Conceived by the spectre of nuclear war, it's possibilities are now perched somewhere between being the next century's biggest technological revolution or society's easiest means to get a thousand varieties of porn downloaded to your computer. Cline's script wasn't 'fanfic'; it was written in professionally-accepted screenwriting style, incorporated all that BB fans dug about the film and its characters and created an entirely new adventure that worked completely within the universe Mac Raugh had created a decade earlier. A good way for a novice screenwriter to cut his teeth. Learn while doing something you love to do, right?
But like we said: Cline's script was different. In a move that sounds like it should have been written into the sequel, after Cline released his script to the 'net, he soon received a call from a production company interested in aquiring the rights to his script. Cline continues:
"A start-up production company, Shapeshifter Productions, was interested in producing the script. I signed a contract with them in which they purchased a one year option on my script while they researched the serial rights and the financial feasibility/marketability of making a sequel. But the labyrinthine rights issues proved to be insurmountable (for them, anyway.) During this time I did two rewrites of the screenplay."
Now, you're thinking to yourself, this type of thing doesn't happen every day. People write fan-based fiction ('fanfic' for short) and post it on the net all the time and Paramount doesn't buy their Star Trek stories. But aside from the fact this was already an entire screenplay and not a short story based on the characters, the main part that seperated this script from other similar concepts that we've read is that it works. It's fun to read. The characters are the ones the original BB. And the villain, Hanoi Xan, had been expertly realized. Imagine Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter rolled into one and cast as the next James Bond billionaire villain -- that's Hanoi Xan in a nutshell.
Well, that's all good and fine -- but what the hell does it feel like when someone out there wants to buy the idea you came up with for one of your favorite films???
"They gave me money. They paid me. I wrote this for fun and they paid me not to sell the script to anyone else while they researched the project, looked in the sequel rights, etc," Cline explains. "Being a film buff like myself you can appreciate the effect this had on me. I wet my pants. I went into cardiac arrest. (It was similar to that feeling you got the first time you saw Aliens or Army of Darkness, 'cept more intense. You dig what I'm saying.)"
This is the cool thing about the generation of 'Star Wars-kids': we're fans whose lives have been impacted by the films we saw in our youth and it's being expressed in the projects these young filmmakers are developing. Before studio execs and marketing types may have scoffed at the creative power any 'geek fanboy' thought he had; now, these guys are making million dollar deals. Don't believe me? Read on:
But unfortunately, Shapeshifter couldn't develop the property. "Their option expired. The BB sequel rights were only available as part of a larger block of film rights sold in a fire sale when the original holder went under. They couldn't get a major studio interested. They were in over their heads. So I pocketed the cash and wrote it off as an experience and a stepping stone." Faced with the prospect of shelving the script that BB fans loved to read, Cline asked Shapeshifter if he could release the script again. Shapeshifter agreed, and so the script is back on the net so new and old fans can have a chance to read it.
We're living in an age of entertainment where old TV shows go on to become event motion picture franchises, and vice versa. Who's to say that a savvy investor or studio exec won't see the potential a Buckaroo Banzai TV series could have when shows like Xena: Warrior Princess mix action, fantasy and wit into a Top 10 syndicated package? Who's to say someone won't look upon the franchise the same way New Line Cinema did with Lost in Space, or Paramount Pictures with Star Trek? It's not like there's no room for expanding the BB universe. Marketing-wise, you've already got a built-in audience of twenty-somethings who know all about comics books, action figures and video games. If you got the right people working on it anything could happen with this property. Hell, we want to see a Buckaroo action figure!
When your eyes next come across the late-night movie listings and fall upon the original film's title, take some time out and watch it for yourself. It's worth it.
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
[A tremendous thank you to Ernest Cline for the interview and for writing a kick ass script. In twenty years someone's gonna kick themselves that they didn't buy this one 'back then'.]
June 18, 1998... Due to legal reasons Ernest Cline has had to take down his script for Banzai 2. [Somberly reported by BBI Ernest Cline.]
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