Will NPH be back?
After making it out of Gitmo, those crazy hapless stoner dudes Harold and Kumar will be back for a third movie. Variety announces that Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who wrote both of the previous movies, will return for this one. Stars John Cho and Kal Penn will also return, as there were options for a third pic in their contracts.
The first film, Harold & Kuman Go to White Castle made $18 million, mostly due to a strong afterlife on video. This year’s release, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay earned $38 million in theaters and will come out on DVD next week.
The Variety article says the “storyline is being kept under wraps.” No, I’m serious, it actually said that. Yeah, under wraps. Like we need a lot of guesswork to figure out the general outline.
So this brings up the question: what’s left to do? The upside for the franchise it its two likable leads. The downside? They have merry, madcap misadventures while in search of some weed. Okay, your basic stoner comedy. Can you go to the well one too many times with this one? Yes, probably, and we may be on that particular well trip.
To complicate matters, the highly touted, bigger budgeted stoner comedy Pineapple Express is coming out soon. If this is as good as everyone claims it is, then will it make another Harold & Kumar film seem small or stale? I know it seems completely self-evident to say that this script better be good–yeah, every movie needs a good script. But I mean more than just solid good, I mean, find a new spin on this genre kind of good. Because now that other people are in on it, the Harold & Kumar folks need to understand that they can’t just throw their gloves on the field and expect to win.
