I don’t think I’ve seen this film in ages… I’d have to return to it to remind myself of it. It was pretty much the Geena Davis show, with Samuel L. Jackson assuming sidekick duties, if I recall correctly. But I think I mostly enjoyed it. Released in 1996, it was kind of like Bourne before Bourne – a trained killing machine/human suffering from memory loss, starts to regain pieces of her past, when that past catches up to her, and, in turn, finally realizes who/what she really is.
Renny Harlin directed the film which actually didn’t do very well at the box office, grossing over $80 million worldwide, but on a $65 million budget – quite a lot back then I think, for a film like this. I don’t recall Geena Davis being that big of a star back then to command this kind of a budget. And Samuel certainly wasn’t either.
But Geena, while she certainly wasn’t the first, predates the likes of Angelina Jolie, Uma Thurman, Zoe Saldana, Halle Berry, and others I can’t think of right now… women who’ve all since starred in action movies.
But anyway… about 10 years after the film was released, Samuel L. Jackson reportedly revealed that he and director Renny Harlin had been discussing developing a sequel to the 1996 thriller, with the story focusing not on Geena Davis’ character, but on her daughter, all grown up, and determined to avenge her mother’s death. And she reaches out to the one person her mother had much of a connection with – Samuel’s character Mitch – since he’s probably the only one with the information she needs to begin her search for her mother’s killers.
Fast-forward to earlier this week… in an interview with Den Of Geek, director Harlin said that the sequel is still in development and that Samuel Jackson is definitely onboard and ready to go; to wit: “I’m right now looking for a writer who would have the same incredible sensibilities in terms of character, humor and action. Sam is hundred percent committed, he’s hundred percent on board… My plan is to focus on a story about Geena’s daughter, who was six years old in the original and would now be about twenty-one. It’s actually gonna be sort of a buddy story between Geena’s daughter and Sam.“
The last sentence kinda says it all.
Of course, a lot still has to happen before any production trucks start loading up to travel. It may never happen, or it could be in theaters next year. This is an unpredictable business.
Regardless, I’m not so sure I’m at all interested in a sequel to that story. I dunno… I’ll be perfectly content with Colombiana, which has a somewhat similar plot – young girls parents are killed; she grows up, and hunts down the killers to avenge her parents’ death.
Ya know, while we’re on the subject… after I watched The Bride take out Vernita Green in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol 1, as Vernita’s young daughter looked on, as the bruised, battered and bloodied body her dead mother lay on the ground, and The Bride tells the kid something like, “when you grow up, and you’re still angry about this, you can come find me,” I was almost certain that Tarantino would one day tell that little girl’s tale… the little girl, who grows up to avenge her mother’s death, in a film that might be called Kill The Bride.
Check out the trailer for The Long Kiss Goodnight below to refresh your memory: