In terms of agreed-upon proofs, it was traditionally known that the Earth is round, Samuel L. Jackson will never age, and a new “The Hangover” film will always be in development. Those first two remain true, but director Todd Phillips has just confirmed that the series' third installment will be the last.
The official announcement made by the studio with Philips, which includes a maddeningly vague statement by the director about the trilogy's end. “We're going to surprise a lot of people with the final chapter we have planned," Phillips said, stating just below the obvious. "It will be a fitting conclusion to our three-part opera of mayhem, despair and bad decisions." Thanks for that. It is not yet known where the final entry will take place, although a recent draft of the script written by Craig Mazin with Philips was set in Los Angeles, and last year, rumors surfaced that the plot was revolve around breaking Zach Galifianakis' character Alan out of a mental hospital.
Joining him of course will be Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms, rumored to be receiving $15 million dollar paydays after dodgy studio forecasting on the first film left the cast without option deals in their contract, and the ball in their court. The heavy price tag on the cast is most likely the main reason behind ending the series, even as the first two 'Hangover' films have grossed to date more than $1 billion worldwide. The malleable concept could easily find its way into a city-of-the-week franchise, rivaling the “Saw” series in its number of entries, but the idea of negotiating escalating deals on their stars' participation would make any studio re-think the operation.
Turn up to see if they made the right choice when “The Hangover 3” hits theatres on May 24, 2013.