50+ of you have now e-mailed me this article about a planned sequel to It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and asked me what I think about someone making a follow-up to one of my favorite movies.
I think, first of all, that this proposed film is a long way from getting in front of a camera. No director is mentioned, no stars, no studio, no distributor. There seems to be a script but the screenwriter is not even named. So this is most likely an article that's being planted in the press in the hope of generating interest from studios, major stars, etc.
Beyond that, I wish them well. If it's a great movie, we all benefit. If it isn't, it doesn't despoil the original in any way. Naturally, there's always cause for skepticism when someone aspires to replicate past greatness. It wouldn't seem likely that it could be achieved in this case. The big appeal of the original started with its huge budget and this sequel doesn't seem to have huge financing.
And that huge budget bought a stellar cast. Assuming the producers come up with that kind of cash, there's some question as to whether it's possible to assemble a comparable roster of stars. Today, your top comedy stars are used to getting salaries that amount to 5-10% of a film's total budget so you can't just go out, meet established price quotes and lasso the top ten folks in that category. That's even assuming you think Will Ferrell, Robin Williams, Adam Sandler and Jack Black are somehow equivalent to Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Buddy Hackett and Jonathan Winters.
Maybe that's the big problem. The original Mad World was a celebration of a certain kind of comedic actor who is currently in short supply. A lot of the major laughs came from the mere appearance of certain people…seeing that the firemen dispatched to prevent a disaster were The Three Stooges, for example. Or watching Don Knotts enter a scene and anticipating what was about to happen because it was Don Knotts. I can't think of too many current comedians whose screen presence is so well established in advance. But hey, I'd love to see them pull it off. Karen Sharpe Kramer, widow of the man who directed the original, is a smart lady and I'm sure she'll do it right or not at all. It's not sacrilege that someone wants to make a movie as good as a great film of the past. It's actually a commendable goal.