Fox will make a ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ sequel

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EXCLUSIVE: Last week, we told you that the elements were coming together for a ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ sequel. Now we can report that Fox 2000 has greenlighted a sequel to its pre-teen hit, based on the second book in author Jeff Kinney’s bestselling prose/comic series.

The production will work from a new script from Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, who wrote the shooting script of the first movie, and will take a fair amount of input from Kinney himself. Star Zachary Gordon will come back too, in a plot that will closely follow ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules,’ the book that findss Greg and both his friends and antagonists back for a second year in middle school. Producer Nina Jacobson is also returning.

The box office for the film’s second weekend of release showed a not insignificant drop of 55%, but given that a movie budgeted at $15 million has now earned $40 million in a little more than two weeks of release, the property is a windfall for the studio. And with a third and fourth book published and a fifth on the way later this year, ‘Wimpy’ could turn into a nice little franchise for the studio.
Fox will probably need to hire a new director for the next film, though; it’s unlikely Thor Freudenthal would come back behind the camera. There’s also no start date as yet, although given the propitiousness of the March release date this year, don’t be surprised if the film pops up again next year at this time.

-- Steven Zeitchik

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