To recap: With “Independence Day 2” still in development in the spring/summer of 2013, two studios went head to head with dueling bad-guys-get-inside-the-White-House movies. Sony Pictures had “White House Down,” and released a few months earlier, FilmDistrict (now known as Focus Features) had “Olympus Has Fallen.” The conventional wisdom tended to favor Sony; their film had stars like Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx and made $205 million worldwide (some notable critics enjoyed its ludicrousness). But at a costly $150 million, “White House Down” only made $73 million at home. In comparison, the cheaper to produce “Olympus Has Fallen,” featuring the cut-rate stars of Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart (sorry guys) made $161 million worldwide against a $70 million budget. The smaller film has the greater profit margin, thus a sequel is born.
So unless you’ve blocked it out of your memory, Focus Features has already announced a sequel titled “London Has Fallen” (“London Bridge Is Falling Down” apparently not up to snuff). The “Die Hard”-ish formula continues with Gerard Butler back in the lead and a story involving a British Prime Minister passing away under mysterious circumstances.
THR reports Fredrik Bond —who directed the Shia LaBeouf drama “Charlie Countryman”—is in negotiations to direct the sequel. The trade also reveals that Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman will be reprising their roles as well. To be perfectly candid, “Charlie Countryman” was pretty terrible. We called the movie “overwrought and incoherent” in our review, but these might be positive attributes in the "loud and louder" mainstream action genre.
The film is set for an October 2015 release date and Millennium films are eyeing an October start date.