LOS ANGELES: New Line is mounting a second 3-D "Journey to the Center of the Earth."
The first movie, made for about $60 million, was one of the first 3-D films to receive a wide release and grossed $240 million worldwide last year. Despite that, the studio waited to see the DVD numbers, which turned out to be robust, before committing to the sequel.
Eric Brevig is back as director and this time will be involved in the development of the script.
One challenge to mounting a second film was finding a story to tell; the source material for the first film, the book by Jules Verne, did not have a sequel. One concept considered was to set the story in Atlantis, but with several Atlantis projects in development at other studios and underwater photography costly, that idea was nixed.
The sequel's story line came together in the form of a spec script by Richard Outten, a writer whose last credited work was 1993-94 Fox TV series "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr."
Titled "Mysterious Travels," the adventure tale was based on the fantasy conceit that the literary tales "Gulliver's Travels," "Treasure Island" and Verne's own "Mysterious Island" all occurred on the same island.
Having bought the script, the producers are repurposing it to fit the "Journey" characters, who were played by Brendan Fraser and Josh Hutcherson. The actors are expected to reprise their roles.
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