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Today in “throw any old IP at the wall and see what sticks”: 20th Century Studios is developing a Night At The Museum reboot. The Ben Stiller-led franchise was, admittedly, very successful, but this movie will not be led by Ben Stiller. Instead, Deadline reports that “the film is said to be a new story set at the museum with all-new characters.” The original trilogy’s director Shawn Levy (of Deadpool fame) will produce alongside Dan Levine for their company 21 Laps Entertainment. Tripper Clancy (Die Hart, Stuber) has been tapped to write the script.
Of course it makes sense for 20th to be returning to this particular intellectual property well, not least because Hollywood’s current motto is to leave no IP stone unturned. Night At The Museum—based on the 1993 children’s book of the same name by Milan Trenc—is a solid, family-friendly story that launched three movies and an animated series spin-off. The series functions sort of like Toy Story for museums, wherein the exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History come to life at night, leading to hijinks for the night watchman (Stiller).
Perhaps it’s worth noting that each film in the trilogy earned less money than the one before it (the first two entries were written by Reno 911 masterminds Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, while the third was written by David Guion and Michael Handelman). Though the returns may have been decent, they were nevertheless diminishing. Then there’s the matter of the Night At The Museum cast: Who could fill the shoes of America’s favorite affable everyman, Ben Stiller? There is no one alive who could replace Robin Williams, who appeared in all three films as a wax statue of Teddy Roosevelt come to life. Then there’s a full cast of heavy hitters including Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Oscar winner Rami Malek, Mickey Rooney, and Dick Van Dyke, plus many more across the trilogy. It won’t be easy to build a cast to live up to that standard, and we have to imagine the cast was a big part of how Levy and co. were able to squeeze three movies out of the concept in the first place. We’ll see if they’re able to recapture the magic starting from scratch.
