By After nearly quitting show business after making one of the worst movies ever made, Mike Meyers has finally signed a deal bringing his iconic character Austin Powers back to the big screen. Details on the film are, at the moment, nonexistant. Meyers has had Austin Powers 4 on the back burner since the third film, Austin Powers in Goldmember, was released way back in 2002. Jesus, it’s really been nine years since the last Austin Powers movie? Anyway, it’s likely that if there isn’t a script out there, there’s probably at least an outline or a treatment. Or Mike Meyers has just been resting on his laurels. One of those two.
I watched the first Austin Powers not too long ago, and it did not really hold up well, even for nostalgic pleasure. When this news first broke, I went back and watched Goldmember, which was always my favorite of the three, and other than Beyonce looking really, really pretty, it wasn’t keeping my attention terribly well. It’ll be interesting to see how Meyers was humbled by The Love Guru and how he might change up his comedic style. After all, this movie probably won’t go into production until next year, which means it may not be out until 2013, 2014. That’s over ten years between Austin Powers movies. I don’t want to say comedy is completely different, but the film could turn out to be as much of a time-lost relic as the character itself. Ooh, that was clever. I’ll have to remember that the next time I’m feeling all pretentious and journalist-y.
Update! Apparently, this isn’t as done a deal as expected. Deadline has more on the story, which I’ll discuss below the cut.
[Via Hitfix, Deadline]While details remain scarce, Deadline claims that the return of Austin Powers is by no means a done deal. There were plans for an Austin Powers movie in 2008, focusing more on Dr. Evil and on an homage to Mike Meyers’s father, the main inspiration for the relationship between Dr. Evil and Seth Green’s Scott Evil. After The Love Guu tanked, the project was abandoned. Six months ago, New Line reached out to Meyers to try and revive the franchise, at a significantly reduced upfront paycheck compared to the $20 million he made for Goldmember. Nothing came of the deal until last week, then Meyers’s representatives finally replied back, mentioning their interest in the film.
As you can see, this is far from the “signed, sealed and delivered” claimed by Hitfix. We’ll be keeping tabs on this story and reporting on it as it develops.