Surprise hit starring Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy as English retirees in India is to get a sequel
John Madden's surprise box-office smash The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which starred Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy as English retirees in India, is to get a sequel.
MovieScope magazine reports that original screenwriter Ol Parker is set to deliver a new script to studio 20th Century Fox in the next couple of months. Dench, Nighy and Smith are all said to be willing to consider returning for the followup, though it is not yet known if Madden is in line to direct.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was not a hit with critics – the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw labelled it "a film that looks as if it has been conceived to be shown on a continuous loop in a Post Office queue" – but made an impressive $130m worldwide on a budget of just $10m. Based on author Deborah Moggach's novel These Foolish Things, its success was hailed by some as evidence of a gap in the market for films targetting an older demographic.
Smith is further catering for the silver pound with hers latest venture, the Dustin Hoffman-directed Quartet. Hoffman's debut behind the cameras, which arrives in the US on 28 December and the UK on 4 January, centres on a group of retired opera singers (Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins and Billy Connolly) who put on an annual concert to celebrate Verdi's birthday. Smith plays a new arrival at the Beecham house retirement home for gifted musicians whose interventions place her rivals' well-honed plans in disarray. Smith has picked up Oscar buzz for both performances.
Dench, meanwhile, is currently starring as 007's boss M in the latest James Bond film, Skyfall.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/oct/31/best-exotic-marigold-hotel-sequel
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