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A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, Movie, Cinema, or song that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same fictional universe as a previous work, usually chronologically following the events of that work.^[1]

In many cases, the sequel continues elements of the original story, often with the same characters and settings. A sequel can lead to a series, in which key elements appear in a number of stories. Although the difference between more than one sequel and a series is somewhat arbitrary, it is clear that some media franchises have enough sequels to become a series, whether originally planned as such or not.

Sequels are attractive to creators and to publishers because there is less risk involved in returning to a story with known popularity rather than developing new and untested characters and settings. Audiences are sometimes eager for more stories about popular characters or settings, making the production of sequels financially appealing.^[2]

In movies, sequels are common. There are many name formats for sequels. Usually, they either have unrelated titles, such as The Jewel of the Nile, the sequel to Romancing the Stone, or the same title as the original, but with a number added, as in Lethal Weapon 2, sequel to Lethal Weapon. Sometimes such titles have subtitles as well (e.g. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York). It is also common for a sequel to have a variation of the original title (such as Men of Boys Town, sequel to Boys Town). In the 1930s, many musical sequels had the year included in the title (Gold Diggers of 1933), in the style of Broadway revues such as the Ziegfeld Follies.

Chronologies[link]

There are a number of ways that subsequent works can be related to the chronology of the original. Various neologisms have been coined to describe them.

Sequel[link]

The most common approach is for the events of the second work to directly follow the events of the first, either picking up dangling plot threads or introducing a new conflict to drive the events of a second story.

Prequel[link]

A sequel that portrays events which precede those of the original work is called a "prequel." These can often avoid the plot problems associated with having to deal with the consequences of the original (e.g. the death of an important character). However, they pose the challenge of maintaining dramatic interest when the outcome is already known from the original work, so the focus is usually on the character interactions or revealing how the characters and situations of the original work developed. Examples are

• Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, recognized as one of the first film prequels, takes place before Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the second film, takes place before Raiders of the Lost Ark.
• Star Wars episodes I, II and III, the "prequel trilogy". The original trilogy comprised episodes IV-VI, in a sequence that was partially planned before the release of the first film. (See also Episode IV opening crawl.)
• Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse takes place in 1476, whereas the first and second game takes place in 1691 and 1698 respectively.
• the Yoshi's Island video games, that follow the Super Mario World games (as Yoshi's Island began with Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island) but take place before the events of the Mario franchise, when the Mario Bros. were babies.
• Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins, a story of how the "Mystery Inc." met.

Interquel[link]

When there are already two or more completed works, an interquel can portray events that happened between them, bridging one story to the other.^[3] The interquel is therefore a sequel to one work and a prequel to another.

For example, the video game Metroid Prime and its sequels were released after Metroid and Metroid II, but take place between them. Another example is Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge which took place in the middle of Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie, but was released after them.

In film, the short film Rings bridges the events of The Ring and The Ring Two. This is more common in ancillary works in other media rather than works in a popular series. For example, the novel The Godfather Returns takes place between the events of the films The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, and the story of the 2008 animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars (as well as the series) takes place between Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

Midquel[link]

A midquel is a sequel which can take place during a chronology gap within a single previously completed work.^{[citation needed]} For example, the Narnia book The Horse and His Boy takes place during the reign of the Pevensie children, which happens towards the end of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Other midquels would be the films Bambi II, which starts out shortly after the death of the young deer's mother in Bambi but before the later scenes in which he is an adult. The video game Resident Evil 2 takes place during a brief interlude in its sequel Resident Evil 3: Nemesis; the video game Daxter takes place during a two-year gap in Jak II, between the moments when the character of Jak is taken prisoner and when he is rescued. The film Saw IV takes place during the events of Saw III. The game Halo 3: ODST takes place during the events of Halo 2 from an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper's perspective on Earth. In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, The Han Solo Adventures take place entirely within the events of the novel Rebel Dawn, which itself ends after the start of A New Hope. The game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days takes place during Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and, briefly, there is a scene which ends it at the start of Kingdom Hearts II. .

Parallel[link]

A Parallel can portray the events of a previously completed work from another perspective.^{[citation needed]} As with a prequel, the focus is not on the outcome, but on the characters and previously unrevealed information. For example, the novel Ender's Shadow covers the events of the previous novel Ender's Game from the point of view of a supporting character in the original. The film The Lion King 1½ is a "parallel" of The Lion King; the same story is told, only from the point of view of Timon and Pumbaa, secondary characters in the original film. Similarly, the animated short BURN-E found as a special feature on the WALL-E DVD, tells the story of a maintenance robot set during, and interacting with, the events of the feature presentation. The first three novels in author E. E. Knight's Age of Fire series all take place at the same time, yet each book is told from a different character's point of view, the first, Dragon Champion, from grey scaleless dragon Auron's; the second, Dragon Avenger, from his sister Wistala; and the third, Dragon Outcast, from his unnamed copper brother. The video game Grand Theft Auto IV's expansions, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony feature events that occur concurrently with the main storyline, from the perspectives of two new protagonists, with their three respective stories intersecting at various points.

Back to the Future Part II played around with the parallel concept by having the protagonist, Marty McFly, go back in time and watch the events of the first movie from a different angle, while never actually changing the effects of what happened.

Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" retells the events of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" from the point of view of what were minor characters in the original play.

American Girl's Marie-Grace and Cécile series are told from the perspectives of the two eponymous protagonists, with the books telling the story from the perspectives of either of the two.

Distant[link]

Sometimes there is a large chronological interval between the events in a completed work and its sequel. This can allow the creators additional freedom, since the characters and settings will not be expected to have as much in common. A distant sequel allows time for new conflicts to develop, and a distant prequel need not directly establish the setting for the original. Speaker for the Dead is an extreme example of this, set 3,000 years after the novel Ender's Game. Some of the sequels and prequels in the Chronicles of Narnia series are separated by centuries in the chronology of the fantasy land or decades in the chronology of the real world. The series Star Trek: The Next Generation follows the events of the original Star Trek by nearly a century. The Legend of Zelda video game series takes place over several hundred years, with many installments featuring various reincarnations of the characters Link and Zelda, who fight the antagonist Ganon, though some games are direct continuations of others. Some issues of the Tales of video game franchise, namely Tales of Symphonia immediately followed by its sequel, Dawn of the New World, and Tales of Phantasia, take place in the same location but very spaced in time. The video game Mother 3 takes place in an era very distant from Mother 2, though it is never stated exactly how long. In this example, only 2 characters return via time travel, with others only mentioned vaguely. More moderate chronological distances can result from works being set in "the present" but released years apart, such as The Terminator and its sequels, released in 1984, 1991, 2003 and 2009.

Spin-off[link]

A variety of sequel that allows substantial creative freedom is one that is set in the same fictional universe as the original work, but with unrelated plots, and sometimes unrelated characters. One example of this is the The Cleveland Show, which is based on Family Guy. The Cleveland Show follows a different character and storyline, but are set in the same fictional universe. Many of Kevin Smith's films take place in the same continuity, commonly referred to as the View Askewniverse, after his production company, although most feature characters only loosely connected to each other, like most characters common association with characters Jay and Silent Bob and having grown up in the same town, characters also frequently reference prominent events from other movies in passing. Screenwriter David Peoples described his film Soldier as a "sidequel" to Blade Runner (which he co-wrote)^{[citation needed]}. When done with the intention of launching a new series of stories, these are often called "spin-offs."The Scorpion King is a spin-off of The Mummy Returns.

Companion piece[link]

A companion piece is a creative work that is produced as a complementary work to another stand-alone project, but storywise has nothing to do with its predecessor. While a companion piece does not necessarily need to take place within the same "universe" as the predecessor, it must follow-up on specific themes and ideas introduced in the original work. It must also be intentionally meant by its creator to be viewed alongside or within the same context as the earlier work. Examples would include Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood's companion piece to his earlier picture, Flags of Our Fathers) which saw the same events taking place from a different perspective, the Road to... pictures starring Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, and Bob Hope, and films featuring the Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers, or the Tramp. Another example is Stephanie Meyer's Midnight Sun which is a project that has been on hold. Another would be Fantasia 2000, which uses the basic ideas of and some elements from Fantasia.

Reboot[link]

A reboot is a term often used for a sequel that is not in continuity with the episode or episodes that were released before it. It is often used in media franchises; for example, the Batman film series with Batman Begins, the Spider-Man film series' upcoming 2012 film, and the Star Trek film series with the 2009 film, Star Trek. In television, the 2004 TV series Battlestar Galactica was termed a "reimagining" of the original 1978 series. It has also been used for the Spyro video game series with a reboot known as The Legend of Spyro.

Stand-alone sequels[link]

When sequels are set in the same universe but have little or no reference to their predecessors, the work is called a stand-alone sequel. This is often the case of direct-to-video films that follow up on semi-successful works, though there are some mainstream films that are stand-alone. Examples include White Noise: The Light, Son of the Mask, Shock Treatment, Boogeyman 2, Home Alone 3, Like Mike 2: Streetball, Evan Almighty, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Another Cinderella Story, A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song, Grease 2, Mean Girls 2, George A. Romero's subsequent Dead sequels after Night of the Living Dead, and City of Men. Another example would be the Sherlock Holmes series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Each of the original stories exist in the same universe, but are all treated as stand alone adventures and can be read in almost any order. A notable example in video games is the Quake series as well as many of the games in the Final Fantasy series, Legend of Zelda series and the Super Mario series. These works often do not require viewers to encounter the previous installments in order to understand them.

History[link]

It is impossible to say for sure when the history of the sequel begins, as the concept of the sequel in its loosest definition has presumably existed since the advent of storytelling itself. In The Afterlife of a Character, David Brewer coined the term “imaginative expansion” to describe a reader’s desire to “see more,” or to know what happens next in a narrative after it has ended.^[4] This capacity for expansive curiosity is certainly not restricted to a particular era in human history. Indeed, we can point to Homer’s ‘’Odyssey’’ as a sequel to the ‘’Iliad’’ in the sense that it expands upon plot and character elements established in the first text. That both the Odyssey and the Iliad were written in the 8th century B.C.E. and are traditionally held to represent the first extant works of western literature lends credence to the ubiquity of sequels in literary history. The Judeo-Christian Bible is also a common referent in that sense; many of the works included in the Hebrew Scriptures can be classified as sequels in that they continue and expand on a very general narrative that is pre-established by previous books in the same collection. In addition, the development of an official canon allows for the distinction between official and unofficial sequels; in this context, apocrypha might be considered an early form of informal sequel literature. Sequels, then, become an important facet of Western literature throughout history. The medieval genre of Romance, in particular, contains massive networks of prequel and sequel literature.

Sequels of the novel[link]

The origin of the sequel as we think of it today developed from the novella and romance traditions in a slow process that culminated towards the end of the 17th century (see: novel).

The substantial shift towards a rapidly growing print culture and the rise of the market system by the early 18th-century meant that an author’s merit and livelihood became increasingly linked to the number of copies of a work he or she could sell. This shift to a text-based to an author-centered reading culture^[5] led to the “professionalization” of the author— that is, the development of a “sense of identity based on a marketable skill and on supplying to a defined public a specialized service it was demanding.”^[6] In one sense, then, sequels became a means to profit further from previous work that had already obtained some measure of commercial success.^[7] As the establishment of a readership became increasingly important to the economic viability of authorship, sequels offered a means to establish a recurring economic outlet.

In addition to economic profit, the sequel was also used as a method to strengthen an author’s claim to his literary property. With weak copyright laws and unscrupulous booksellers willing to sell whatever they could, in some cases the only way to prove ownership of a text was to produce another like it. Sequels in this sense are rather limited in scope, as the authors are focused on producing “more of the same” to defend their “literary paternity.”^[8] As is true throughout history, sequels to novels provided an opportunity for authors to interact with a readership. This becomes especially important in the economy of the 18th century novel, in which an author needed to draw readers back with the promise of more of what they liked from the original in order to maintain readership. With sequels, therefore, came the implicit division of readers by authors into the categories of “desirable” and “undesirable”—that is, those that interpret the text in a way unsanctioned by the author. Only after having achieved a significant reader base would an author was free to alienate or ignore the “undesirable” readers.^[9]

This concept of “undesirable” readers extends to unofficial sequels with the 18th century novel. While in certain historical contexts unofficial sequels were actually the norm (for an example, see Arthurian literature), with the emphasis on the author function that arises in conjunction with the novel many authors began to see these kinds of unauthorized extensions as being in direct conflict with authorial authority. With Don Quixote (an early novel, perhaps better classified as a satirical romance), for example, Cervantes disapproved of Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda’s use of his characters in “Second Volume of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha,” an unauthorized sequel. In response, he very firmly kills the protagonist at the end of the Second Part to discourage any more such creative liberties.^[10] Another example is Samuel Richardson, an 18th-century author that responded particularly strongly against the appropriation of his material by unauthorized third parties. Richardson was extremely vocal in his disapproval of the way the protagonist of his novel ‘’Pamela’’ was repeatedly incorporated into unauthorized sequels featuring particularly lewd plots. The most famous of these is Henry Fielding’s parody, entitled “Shamela.”^[11]

Gender and The 18th Century Sequel[link]

In “To Renew Their Former Acquaintance: Print, Gender, and Some Eighteenth Century Sequels” Betty Schellenburg theorizes that whereas for male writers in the 18th century sequels often served as “models of paternity and property,” for women writers these models were more likely to be seen as transgressive. Instead, the unique recurring readership created by sequels allowed female writers to function within the model of “familiar acquaintances reunited to enjoy the mutual pleasures of conversation,” which allowed writing to be perceived as an “activity within a private, non-economic sphere.” Ironically, of course, it was through this created perception that women writers were able to break into the economic sphere and “enhance their professional status” through authorship.^[12]

Dissociated from the motives of profit and therefore unrestrained by the need for continuity felt by male writers, Schellenburg argues that female-authored sequel fiction tended to have a much broader scope. Women writers showed an “innovative freedom” that male writers rejected in order to “protect their patrimony.” For example, Sarah Fielding Sarah Fielding’s Adventures of David Simple and its sequels Familiar Letters between the Principle Characters in David Simple and David Simple, Volume the Last are extremely innovative and cover almost the entire range of popular narrative styles of the 18th century.^[13]

Videogames[link]

Sequels in videogames started in the early 1980s (for example, games such as Super Pac-Man in 1982). As software development costs have increased,^[14][15] sequels have become increasingly important for the video game industry, as they provide a way to resell a product, reusing code and graphics.

Media franchises[link]

In some cases, the characters or setting of an original film or video game become so valuable that they develop into a media franchise. Generally a whole series of sequels is made, along with merchandising. Multiple sequels are often planned well in advance and actors and directors may sign extended contracts to ensure their participation.

This can extend into a franchise's initial production's plot in order to provide story material to develop for sequels called sequel hooks. For instance, the film Kung Fu Panda begins with Po, a giant panda, somehow having a goose for a father and the story deliberately avoids giving a definitive explanation of how that is possible. Po's quest to answer that question forms part of the plot of Kung Fu Panda 2, which in turn establishes Po and Tigress' deepening relationship and the last minute appearance of a supposedly dead species as story material for the next film.

Box office impact vs. original movie[link]

Although movie sequels do not always do as well at the box office as the original, they tend to do much better than non-sequels, according to a study in the July 2008 issue of the Journal of Business Research. The shorter the period between releases, the better the sequel will do at the box office. Sequels also show a faster drop in weekly revenues relative to non-sequels.^[16]

Media shifting[link]

Sequels are most often produced in the same medium as the previous work (e.g. a film sequel is usually a sequel to another film). Producing sequels to a work in another medium has recently become common, especially when the new medium is less costly or time-consuming to produce.

A sequel to a popular but discontinued television series may be produced in another medium, thereby bypassing whatever factors led to the series cancellation. Noteworthy examples include the Star Trek films, Serenity (based on the Firefly series), and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series was continued after ending its run in 2003 for another "season" as a comic book. The Buffy series was itself a continuation of the unsuccessful film Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Gargoyles television series' comic book series, written by series creator, Greg Weisman, was written with a specific agenda to supplant the events of the television property's derided Goliath Chronicles phase.

Some highly popular movies and television series have inspired the production of multiple novel sequels, sometimes rivaling or even dwarfing the volume of works in the original medium. An ongoing series of novels (largely interquels) begun in the 1970s were based on the original Star Trek series, with more following with the sequel films and TV series. The novels and graphic novels in the Star Wars Expanded Universe are sequels, prequels, and interquels to the films.

Computer games are an increasingly common medium for sequels to films. The Matrix Online, Stranglehold, and Scarface: The World Is Yours are sequels to the films The Matrix, Hard Boiled, and Scarface, respectively.

Whether these alternate-medium sequels are considered canonical, varies. Bungie Studios, the developer of the Halo video games, considers the novel sequels to be canonical. The novels, comics, video games, and other media that comprise the Star Wars Expanded Universe are divided into tiers of canonicity by Lucasfilm, the films' production company, though the subject is often debated amongst fans. Likewise, novel sequels to the film Blade Runner are authorized and officially considered canonical, but the issue is also a topic of debate amongst fans.

Unofficial sequels[link]

Sometimes sequels are produced without the consent of the creator of the original work. These may be dubbed unofficial, informal, unauthorized, or illegitimate sequels. In some cases, the work is in the public domain, and there is no legal obstacle to producing sequels, for example Jean Rhys wrote Wide Sargasso Sea as a parallel to Jane Eyre. In other cases, the original creator or their heirs may assert copyrights and challenge the creators of the sequels. For example, the estate of Margaret Mitchell sued over Alice Randall's novel The Wind Done Gone, a parallel of Gone with the Wind told from the perspective of the slaves; it was successfully defended as parody. Unofficial sequels to works that are still under copyright may change the names of the characters and alter the settings in an attempt to avoid legal action.

Other examples of such unofficial sequels include:

Novels[link]

• Cosette: The Sequel To Les Misérables by Laura Kalpakian, created as a sequel to Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables. Cosette or the Time of Illusions and Marius or The Fugitive by François Cérésa, were also created as sequels to this novel.
• Psychohistorical Crisis by Donald Kingsbury was created as a sequel to Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy.
• The children novels Le petit prince retrouvé (The Little Prince Returns), The Return of the Little Prince, Les nouvelles aventures du petit prince (The New Adventures of the Little Prince) and Mały Książę i Róża (The Little Prince and the Rose) were based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince.

Films[link]

• Happily Ever After was created as a sequel to Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
• War, Inc., has been described by John Cusack as an informal sequel to Grosse Pointe Blank, as both films are dark comedies which feature Cusack playing a hitman.
• 20th Century Fox's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), was originally conceived as an official sequel to the studio's earlier hit Valley of the Dolls (1967). The first script written for Beyond included at least two of the characters from the original. Jacqueline Susann, author of the original Valley of the Dolls novel, objected to the studio making a sequel without her involvement and subsequently sued the studio. The names of the characters were changed and the actors who were in line to portray them again were released from the project. Beyond ended up needing a disclaimer at the beginning of the film and on all posters stating it was not a sequel, though much of the spirit was in the same vein as the original, with occasional references in costumes and dialogue.
• Return to Oz was incorrectly thought to be a sequel to Victor Fleming's 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz. However, it was never intended to be assumed that way.

Titles[link]

The producers of sequels have taken a variety of approaches to titling their works.

In the early years of film, sequels were generally given titles similar to the original and usually made use of the main character's name. When the William Powell-Myrna Loy mystery film The Thin Man (1934) turned out to be a hit, the studio produced several more films featuring the characters, such as After the Thin Man and The Thin Man Goes Home, even though the original "thin man" was the subject of the mystery and not the detective. After the success of A Family Affair (1937), there came a whole series of films starring Mickey Rooney reprising the Andy Hardy character in titles such as Love Finds Andy Hardy and Andy Hardy Meets Debutante.

On the other hand, early sequels in world cinema often lacked any particular naming schemes. For example, the three films in Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959) had unrelated titles: Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road), Aparajito (The Unvanquished), and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu). Similarly, Akira Kurosawa's Sanjuro (1962) also had an unrelated name from its predecessor Yojimbo (The Bodyguard) (1961). Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy also lacked a naming scheme for its titles: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).

The James Bond franchise stuck to the titles of Ian Fleming's novels until they ran out, then fashioned new titles with similar forms, none of which use the name "James Bond 007" or a number. The Pink Panther series started out with a different title for each (The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark, Inspector Clouseau) in the 1960s. When the series was later resumed, the new approach was to append phrases to The Pink Panther, many of which came from classic horror films, i.e. Son of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Curse. Even if the actual Pink Panther diamond that the series takes its name from is not involved in a given sequel, they were named The Return of the Pink Panther, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Revenge of the Pink Panther, Trail of the Pink Panther, Curse of the Pink Panther, and Son of the Pink Panther to clearly associate them with each other.

Numbered sequels (particularly using Roman numerals) became very popular in films and video games in the 1970s and 1980s. The Godfather Part II (1974) was the first major motion picture to use Part II in the title. The success of The Godfather, Part II began the Hollywood tradition of numbered sequels; the first sequel to designate itself as such simply by using a number in the title was 1975's French Connection II, and the trend continued with films such as Rocky II, Jaws 2 and Halloween II. Occasionally, a homophonous word is substituted for the number, such as in the case of Look Who's Talking Too, the sequel to Look Who's Talking, or the upcoming film Fletch Won, which is a prequel to the film Fletch. As sequels developed a reputation of being inferior to the original works, the numbering of sequels became less common, or sometimes used for humorous effect. Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult is simply the third in the Naked Gun series. Leonard Part 6 had no predecessors, while History of the World, Part I was made with no intention for a sequel. Many sequels use subtitles instead of numbers or in addition to them, such as Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Underworld: Evolution, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In other cases, sequels use titles similar to their predecessors, such as Analyze This sequel Analyze That, Meet the Parents sequel Meet the Fockers, and Night of the Living Dead sequel Dawn of the Dead. Some such titles give a playful nod to the numbering practice, as with The Whole Nine Yards sequel The Whole Ten Yards, 101 Dalmatians sequel 102 Dalmatians, or Ocean's Eleven sequels Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen.

Throughout this period of numbered sequels, like-named sequels remained somewhat popular, and sometimes the original film was renamed when it was released on home video to match the naming of the sequels. What was once known as Star Wars is now known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Similarly, Raiders of the Lost Ark is known in its current video release as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark to better align it with its prequel and sequel, and the DVD of Pitch Black was renamed The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black to help promote it as a predecessor to its sequel The Chronicles of Riddick.

With the rise of pre-planned series such as The Lord of the Rings, filmmakers turned more to long titles that include the franchise name and the title of the film separated by a colon. Examples of these include Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Sequel-naming in translation varies. Following the success of Home Alone in Germany (German title: Allein zu Haus, or Alone at Home), some of Macaulay Culkin's other films were retitled to capitalize on the success (Uncle Buck became Allein mit Onkel Buck, or Alone with Uncle Buck), even though the two films were not linked in the same continuity. When Dawn of the Dead was released in Italy under the title Zombi, a similar but unrelated Italian film was in production, which was released as Zombi 2.

Numbers in the titles of sequels sometimes indicate the order in which the sequel was produced, regardless of the chronological events in the story. For example, the video game Devil May Cry 3 was the third title in the Devil May Cry series to be produced, though it is a prequel that takes place before the events of Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 2. Devil May Cry 4 is set between the original game and Devil May Cry 2. However, while the sequel to the Japanese movie Ring was called Ring 2, the subsequent prequel was Ring 0.

Occasionally a work is designated as a sequel to an unrelated but similar work strictly for marketing purposes. After releasing the computer game Quake, developer id Software decided to name its next game Quake II, despite the fact that the two games are completely unrelated. Quake III is also unrelated to either of the previous Quake games, although Quake 4 continues the story of Quake II. A further example is Capcom's Street Fighter 2010, which had nothing to do with any of the other Street Fighter games.

In recent years, many sequels have been given the name of the title character, to imply a new beginning for a series. This is commonly known as a "Stallone," for the actor who has given such outstanding examples of this nomenclature. The sixth Rocky film was titled Rocky Balboa; the fourth Rambo movie, following on from First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Rambo III was called Rambo in North America and John Rambo in many, but not all, international markets. Another example of a film to utilize a "Stallone" is the sixth St Trinian's film, titled St Trinian's. In a similar trend, the third sequel to The Fast and the Furious was simply named Fast & Furious, while the fourth sequel to Final Destination was named The Final Destination.

Yet another form of titling is the use of the plural version of the original work's title, as in Aliens, the sequel to Alien, and Predators, a sequel to Predator.

Though very seldom, a proper sequel, and not a reboot, may have exactly the same title as the original work, with none of the variations mentioned above. The 2009 film Star Trek, is one such case; by means of a time travel plot it is at once a prequel, sequel and reboot to the 1960's television series of exactly the same name. An even clearer example is the 2011 film The Thing, which is a prequel to the 1982 film with the exact same title.^[17] Likewise, the 2006 video game Sonic the Hedgehog is set later in the same continuity as the first game in the series, 1991's Sonic the Hedgehog. This is slightly more common in the world of music - artists as varied as Led Zeppelin, Weezer and Peter Gabriel have all followed up successful self-titled albums with another by the same name. Fans typically refer to them either by numerals (e.g., Led Zeppelin IV, Peter Gabriel 3) or by cover artwork content (e.g., The Green Album or Melt).

See also[link]

• Cliffhanger
• Film series
• List of video game franchises
• List of film sequels by box-office improvement
• List of the longest gaps between film sequels
• Prequel
• Spiritual successor
• Tetralogy
• Trilogy

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Constantine Verevis (2010), Second takes: critical approaches to the film sequel, SUNY Press, ISBN 9781438430294 

External links[link]

Look up sequel or threequel in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Slate: "The Midas Formula (How to create a billion-dollar movie franchise)"
• Box Office Mojo: Film franchise earning comparison

Harry Chapin
Harry Chapin in concert
Background information
Born	(1942-12-07)December 7, 1942 Brooklyn, New York City United States
Died	July 16, 1981(1981-07-16) (aged 38) Jericho, New York United States
Genres	Folk rock, folk
Occupations	Musician Composer Arranger Author Humanitarian Playwright
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica
Years active	1964–1981
Labels	Elektra Records Boardwalk Records Sequel Records DCC Compact Classics Chapin Productions
Website	http://www.harrychapinmusic.com

Harry Forster Chapin (December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981) was an American singer-songwriter best known in particular for his folk rock songs including "Taxi", "W*O*L*D", and the number-one hit "Cat's in the Cradle". Chapin was also a dedicated humanitarian who fought to end world hunger; he was a key player in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977.^[1] In 1987, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work.

Early life and education[link]

Chapin was born into a middle-class family in New York City, the second of four children—including future musicians Tom and Steve—born to Jeanne Elspeth (née Burke) and Jim Chapin, who was a musician—a percussionist. He had English ancestry, his great-grandparents having emigrated in the late 19th century. His parents divorced in 1950, with Elspeth retaining custody of their four sons, as Jim spent much of his time on the road as a drummer for Big band era acts such as Woody Herman. She married Films in Review magazine editor Henry Hart a few years later. Chapin's maternal grandfather was literary critic Kenneth Burke.^[2]

Chapin's first formal introduction to music was while singing in the Brooklyn Boys Choir. It was here that Chapin met "Big" John Wallace, a tenor with a five-octave range, who later became his bassist, backing vocalist, and his straight man onstage. He began performing with his brothers while a teenager, with their father occasionally joining them on drums.

Chapin graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1960, and was among the five inductees in the school's Alumni Hall Of Fame for the year 2000. He briefly attended the United States Air Force Academy and was then an intermittent student at Cornell University, but did not complete a degree.

He originally intended to be a documentary film-maker, and directed Legendary Champions in 1968, which was nominated as a documentary Academy Award. In 1971, he decided to focus on music. With John Wallace, Tim Scott and Ron Palmer, Chapin started playing in various local nightclubs in New York City.

Recording career[link]

Following an unsuccessful early album made with his brothers, Tom Chapin and Steve Chapin, Chapin's debut album was Heads & Tales (1972, #60), which was a success thanks to the single "Taxi" (#24). Chapin later gave great credit to WMEX-Boston radio personality Jim Connors for being the DJ who "discovered" this single, and pushing the airplay of this song among fellow radio programmers in the U.S.

However, Chapin's recording future became somewhat of a controversy between two powerful record companies headed by two very powerful men, Jac Holzman of Elektra Records and Clive Davis of Columbia. According to Chapin's biography Taxi: The Harry Chapin Story by Peter M. Coan, Chapin had agreed in principle to sign with Elektra Records on the grounds that a smaller record label would give greater personal attention to his work. Davis, however, remained undaunted, doubling almost every cash advance offer Chapin received from Holzman. Despite a cordial relationship with Holzman, Davis had a long history of besting Holzman over the years to particular artists, but this was one time that he did not prevail.

Chapin ultimately signed with Elektra for a smaller advance, but with provisions that made it worth the move. The biggest stipulation in the nine-album deal was that he receive free studio time, meaning he paid no recording costs. It was a move that would ultimately save Chapin hundreds of thousands of dollars over the term of his contract and set a precedent for other musicians.

"This was completely unheard of," said Davis in the Coan book. "There was no such thing as free studio time."

Chapin's follow-up album, Sniper and Other Love Songs (1972, #160), was less successful despite containing the Chapin anthem "Circle" (a big European hit for The New Seekers). His third album, Short Stories (1973, #61), was a modest success. Verities & Balderdash (1974, #4), released soon after, was much more successful, bolstered by the chart-topping hit single "Cat's in the Cradle", based upon a poem by his wife; Sandra Chapin had written the poem inspired by her first husband's relationship with his father and a country song she heard on the radio.^[3] When Harry's son Josh was born, he got the idea to put music to the words and recorded the result. "Cat's in the Cradle" was Chapin's only number one hit, shooting album sales skyward and making him a millionaire.

He also wrote and performed a Broadway musical The Night That Made America Famous. Additionally, Chapin wrote the music and lyrics for Cotton Patch Gospel, a musical by Tom Key and Russell Treyz based on Clarence Jordan's book The Cotton Patch Version of Matthew and John. The original cast soundtrack was produced by Tom Chapin, and released in 1982 by Chapin Productions.

Chapin's only UK hit was "W*O*L*D", which reached #34 in 1974. His popularity in the UK owed much to the championing of BBC disc jockey Noel Edmonds. The song's success in the U.S. was championed by WMEX jock and friend of Chapin's Jim Connors who in part inspired the song.^{[citation needed]} The national appeal of the song was a result of disc jockeys playing it for themselves, since the song dealt with a much-traveled DJ, problems in his personal life, and his difficulty with aging in the industry. This song was also a significant inspiration (though not the only one) for Hugh Wilson, who created the popular television series about DJs and radio, WKRP in Cincinnati.^{[citation needed]}

Chapin's recording of "The Shortest Story", a song he wrote about a dying child and featured in his 1976 live/studio album Greatest Stories Live, was named by author Tom Reynolds in his book I Hate Myself And Want To Die as the second most depressing song of all time.

Chapin's personal interaction with his fans (he regularly led audiences in sing-alongs) was such that during a 1977 appearance at Pensacola Junior College, Pensacola, Florida, when he was touring with only his bass viol player, he recruited the back-up singers for "Mr. Tanner" out of the audience.

By the end of the decade, Chapin's contract with Elektra (which had since merged with Asylum Records under the control of David Geffen) had expired, and the company made no offer to renew it. A minor deal with Casablanca Records fell through, and Chapin settled on a simple one-album deal with Boardwalk Records. The Boardwalk album would be his final work.

The title track of his last album, Sequel, was a follow up to his earlier song "Taxi", reuniting the same characters ten years later. The songs Chapin was working on at the time of his death were subsequently released as the thematic album The Last Protest Singer.

Personal life[link]

Chapin met Sandy Cashmore (née Gaston), a New York socialite nine years his senior, in 1966, after she called him asking for music lessons. They married two years later. The story of their meeting and romance is told in his song "I Wanna Learn a Love Song". He had two children with her, Jennifer and Joshua, and was stepfather to her three children from a previous marriage, Jaime, Jason and Jonathan. Chapin wrote several songs about her, including "Shooting Star" about their relationship, and "Sandy". As for his religious views, Chapin was "an agnostic, if not an atheist".^[4]

Philanthropic work[link]

Chapin was resolved to leave his imprint on Long Island. He envisioned a Long Island where the arts flourished, universities expanded, and humane discourse was the norm. "He thought Long Island represented a remarkable opportunity," said Chapin's widow, Sandy.^[5]

Chapin served on the boards of the Eglevsky Ballet, the Long Island Philharmonic, and Hofstra University. He also energized the now-defunct Performing Arts Foundation (PAF) of Huntington.

In the mid-1970s, Chapin focused on his social activism, including raising money to combat hunger in the United States. His daughter Jen said: "He saw hunger and poverty as an insult to America".^[6] He co-founded the organization World Hunger Year with radio personality Bill Ayres, before returning to music with On the Road to Kingdom Come. He also released a book of poetry, Looking...Seeing, in 1977. Many of Chapin's concerts were benefit performances (for example, a concert^[7] to help save the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse, New York), and sales of his concert merchandise were used to support World Hunger Year.

Chapin's social causes at times caused friction among his band members and then-manager Fred Kewley. Chapin donated an estimated third of his paid concerts to charitable causes, often performing alone with his guitar to reduce costs. Mike Rendine accompanied him on bass throughout 1979.

One report quotes his widow saying soon after his death — "only with slight exaggeration" — that "Harry was supporting 17 relatives, 14 associations, seven foundations and 82 charities. Harry wasn't interested in saving money. He always said, 'Money is for people,' so he gave it away." Despite his success as a musician, he left little money and it was difficult to maintain the causes for which he raised more than $3 million in the last six years of his life.^[8] The Harry Chapin Foundation was the result.

Death[link]

On Thursday, July 16, 1981, just after noon, Chapin was driving in the left lane on the Long Island Expressway at about 65 mph on the way to perform at a free concert scheduled for later that evening at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York. Near exit 40 in Jericho he put on his emergency flashers, presumably because of either a mechanical or medical problem (possibly a heart attack). He then slowed to about 15 miles (24 km) per hour and veered into the center lane, nearly colliding with another car. He swerved left, then to the right again, ending up directly in the path of a tractor-trailer truck. The truck could not brake in time and rammed the rear of Chapin's blue 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit, rupturing the fuel tank by climbing its back and causing it to burst into flames.

The driver of the truck and a passerby were able to get Chapin out of the burning car through the window and by cutting the seat belts before the car was engulfed in flames. Chapin was taken by police helicopter to a hospital, where ten doctors tried for 30 minutes to revive him.^{[citation needed]} A spokesman for the Nassau County Medical Center said Chapin had suffered a heart attack and "died of cardiac arrest", but there was no way of knowing whether it occurred before or after the accident. In an interview years after his death, Chapin's daughter said "My dad didn't really sleep, and he ate badly and had a totally insane schedule."^[6]

Even though Chapin was driving without a license, his driver's license having previously been revoked for a long string of traffic violations, his widow Sandy won a $12 million decision in a negligence lawsuit against Supermarkets General, the owners of the truck.

Chapin's remains were interred in the Huntington Rural Cemetery, Huntington, New York. His epitaph is taken from his song "I Wonder What Would Happen to this World". It is:

Oh if a man tried

To take his time on Earth

And prove before he died

What one man's life could be worth

I wonder what would happen

to this world

Legacy[link]

On December 7, 1987, on what would have been his 45th birthday, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his campaigning on social issues, particularly his highlighting of hunger around the world and in the United States. His work on hunger included being widely recognized as a key player in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977 (he was the only member who attended every meeting).^[9] He was also the inspiration for the anti-hunger projects USA for Africa and Hands Across America, which were organized by Ken Kragen, who had been Chapin's manager.^[10] Kragen, explaining his work on these benefit events, said, "I felt like Harry had crawled into my body and was making me do it."^[11]

A biography of Chapin entitled Taxi: The Harry Chapin Story, by Peter M. Coan, was released following his death. Although Chapin had cooperated with the writer, following his death the family withdrew their support. There is some concern about the accuracy of the details included in the book. In 2001, Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was ranked number 186 of 365 on the RIAA list of Songs of the Century. Chapin was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006.

The Lakeside Theatre at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York, was renamed "Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre" during a memorial concert held one month after his death, as a tribute to his efforts to combat world hunger. Other Long Island landmarks named in honor of Chapin include a graduate student apartment complex at Stony Brook University, a theater in Heckscher Park, and a playground at the intersection of Columbia Heights and Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights.

On September 27, 2011, former congressman Alan Grayson wrote an article on The Huffington Post about Chapin's song "What Made America Famous".^[12]

Family[link]

Chapin often remarked that he came from an artistic family. His father Jim Chapin and brothers Tom Chapin and Steve Chapin are also musicians, as are his daughter Jen Chapin and two of his nieces who formed a band called the Chapin Sisters). His paternal grandfather, James Ormsbee Chapin, was an artist who illustrated Robert Frost's first two books of poetry; his maternal grandfather was the philosopher Kenneth Burke.^[13]

Harry Chapin's brothers, Tom and Steve Chapin sometimes performed with Harry at various times throughout his career, particularly during his live performances. They played together before his solo career took off, credited on the album, Chapin Music!, and later on his live albums Greatest Stories Live and Legends of the Lost and Found. They continued to perform together (often with his former bandmates) from time to time in the decades since his death. It is a common misconception that Mary Chapin Carpenter is closely related to Chapin, when in fact they are merely fifth cousins.^[14]

Discography[link]

LPs:

• Chapin Music! (1966, Rock-Land Records)
• Heads & Tales (1972, Elektra)
• Sniper and Other Love Songs (1972, Elektra)
• Short Stories (1973, Elektra)
• Verities & Balderdash (1974, Elektra)
• Portrait Gallery (1975, Elektra)
• Greatest Stories Live (Double Album, 1976, Elektra)
• On the Road to Kingdom Come (1976, Elektra)
• Dance Band on the Titanic (Double Album, 1977, Elektra)
• Living Room Suite (1978, Elektra)
• Legends of the Lost and Found (Double Album, 1979, Elektra)
• Sequel (1980, Boardwalk Records)
• Anthology of Harry Chapin (1985, Elektra)
• Remember When the Music (1987, Dunhill Compact Classics)
• The Gold Medal Collection (1988, Elektra)
• The Last Protest Singer (1988, Dunhill Compact Classics)
• Harry Chapin Tribute (1990, Relativity Records)
• The Bottom Line Encore Collection (1998, Bottom Line / Koch)
• Story of a Life (1999, Elektra)
• Storyteller (1999, BOA Records)
• Onwards and Upwards (2000, Harry Chapin Foundation)
• VH1 Behind the Music: The Harry Chapin Collection (2001, Elektra)
• The Essentials (2002, Elektra)
• Classics (2003, Warner Special Products)
• Heads and Tales / Sniper and Other Love Songs (2004, Elektra. Double CD re-release of first two albums with bonus tracks)
• Introducing... Harry Chapin (2006, Rhino Records)

Singles[link]

• Note: In 1974, "What Made America Famous?" was released as a promotional 45 to radio stations.

Video / DVD releases[link]

• An Evening With... Harry Chapin (also known as "The Book of Chapin") (1998)
• Rockpalast Live (2002)
• Remember When: The Anthology (2005)
• You Are the Only Song (also known as "The Final Concert") (2006)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Harry Chapin

• Harry Chapin tribute song written and performed by Robert Dean
• Harry Chapin Foundation
• Website by the Chapin family
• Harry Chapin at the Internet Movie Database
• Harry Chapin (founder) page on Long Island Cares/Harry Chapin Food Bank website
• HarryChapin.com — a fan site
• Harry Chapin at classicbands.com — Contains many details about the accident that took his life.
• World Hunger Year website
• Harry Chapin
• The Howie Fields years — The site of Chapin's drummer Howie Fields giving details of all the band shows played from 1975 to 1981
• Harry Chapin at Find a Grave

This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help improve the article by updating it. There may be additional information on the talk page. (March 2012)

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2007)

Guillermo del Toro
Guillermo del Toro in September 2011.
Born	Guillermo del Toro (1964-10-09) October 9, 1964 (age 47) Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Residence	Agoura Hills, California, United States
Nationality	Mexican
Occupation	Director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1984–present
Spouse	Lorenza Newton (?-present)

Guillermo del Toro (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡiˈʎermo ðel ˈtoɾo]; born October 9, 1964) is a Mexican director, producer, screenwriter, novelist and designer. He is mostly known for his acclaimed films, Blade II, Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy film franchise. He is a frequent collaborator with Ron Perlman, Federico Luppi and Doug Jones. His films draw heavily on sources as diverse as weird fiction, fantasy and war.

Early life[link]

Del Toro was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He was raised in a strict Catholic household.^[1] Del Toro studied at the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Cinematográficos, in Guadalajara.^[2] He first got involved in filmmaking when he was about eight years old and studied special effects and make-up with SFX artist Dick Smith.^[3] Del Toro participated in the cult series La Hora Marcada with other renowned Mexican filmmakers such as Emmanuel Lubezki and Alfonso Cuarón.

He spent ten years as a special effects make-up designer and formed his own company, Necropia. He also co-founded the Guadalajara International Film Festival. Later on in his directing career, he formed his own production company, the Tequila Gang.

In 1998, at the age of 34, Guillermo was given a $30 million budget from Miramax studios to shoot his second film, Mimic. During this time, his father, automotive entrepreneur Federico del Toro, was kidnapped in Guadalajara, Mexico. Although Federico was eventually released safely, there was intense economic pressure from his captors, to the point that del Toro's family had to pay twice the amount originally asked. The event prompted Del Toro, his parents and his siblings to move abroad. In an interview with Time magazine, he said this about the kidnapping of his father: "Every day, every week, something happens that reminds me that I am in involuntary exile [from my country]."^[4][5]

Career[link]

Guillermo del Toro has directed a wide variety of films, from action hero comic book adaptations (Blade II, Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army) to historical fantasy and horror films, two of which are set in Spain in the context of the Spanish Civil War under the authoritarian rule of Francisco Franco. These two films, El Espinazo Del Diablo (The Devil's Backbone) and El Laberinto Del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth), are among his most critically acclaimed works. They share similar settings, protagonists (young children), and themes (including the relationship between fantasy/horror and the struggle to live under authoritarian or dictatorial rule) with the 1973 Spanish film The Spirit of the Beehive, widely considered to be the finest Spanish film of the 1970s.^[6]

Del Toro views the horror genre as inherently political, explaining, "Much like fairy tales, there are two facets of horror. One is pro-institution, which is the most reprehensible type of fairy tale: Don't wander into the woods, and always obey your parents. The other type of fairy tale is completely anarchic and antiestablishment."^[5]

He is close friends with two other prominent and critically praised Mexican filmmakers, Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu.^[7] The three often influence each other's directorial decisions, and have been interviewed together by Charlie Rose. Cuarón was one of the producers of Pan's Labyrinth. After Blade II, Del Toro turned down many directing jobs for other films to do some of his other projects, he turned down directing jobs for Blade: Trinity and Resident Evil: Apocalypse to write/direct Hellboy. He also turned down The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to do Pan's Labyrinth, for which he also received a Nebula Award for Best Script. He also turned down Resident Evil: Extinction, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and Halo to do Hellboy II: The Golden Army. ^[8]

Del Toro has also contributed to the web series Trailers From Hell.^[9]

On December 9, 2010, Guillermo del Toro launched Mirada with partners Guillermo Navarro (his long-time cinematographer), director Mathew Cullen and Executive Producer Javier Jimenez. Mirada was formed in Los Angeles, CA to be a collaborative space where they and other filmmakers can work with Mirada’s artists to create and produce projects that span digital production and content for film, television, advertising, interactive and other media. Mirada launched as a sister company to production company Motion Theory.^[10]

Future projects[link]

In April 2008, Del Toro was hired to direct the live action film adaptation of The Hobbit. On May 30, 2010, Del Toro stepped down from the project due to an extended delay brought on by MGM's financial troubles. Although he removed himself from directing the film, he continued co-writing the screenplays.^[11]

Del Toro is scheduled to direct four films for Universal; Frankenstein; a remake of Slaughterhouse-Five; and Drood, an adaptation of a Dan Simmons novel published in February 2009.^[12] Drood was expected to be his first project after the two films set in Middle-earth. These projects would have filled up his schedule until 2017.^[13] Part of the Universal deal entails continuing research and development for the creatures in At the Mountains of Madness.^[14] In June 2009, Del Toro said he would only direct Frankenstein .^[15] Del Toro is also in the early stages of development of Saturn and the End of Days.^[16]

Del Toro said his Frankenstein would be a faithful "Miltonian tragedy", citing Frank Darabont's "near perfect" script, which evolved into Kenneth Branagh's Frankenstein.^[17] Del Toro said of his vision, "What I’m trying to do is take the myth and do something with it, but combining elements of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein without making it just a classical myth of the monster. The best moments in my mind of Frankenstein, of the novel, are yet to be filmed [...] The only guy that has ever nailed for me the emptiness, not the tragic, not the Miltonian dimension of the monster, but the emptiness is Christopher Lee in the Hammer films, where he really looks like something obscenely alive. Boris Karloff has the tragedy element nailed down but there are so many versions, including that great screenplay by Frank Darabont that was ultimately not really filmed."^[18] He has also cited Bernie Wrightson's illustrations as inspiration, and said the film will not focus on the monster's creation, but be an adventure film featuring the character.^[19] Del Toro said he would like Wrightson to design his version of the creature. The film will also focus on the religious aspects of Shelley's tale.^[20] Del Toro has stated that production on Frankenstein most likely will not begin for at least four years.^[21] Despite this, he has already cast frequent collaborator Doug Jones in the role of Frankenstein's monster. In an interview with Sci Fi Wire, Jones stated that he learned of the news the same day as everybody else; that "Guillermo did say to the press that he’s already cast me as his monster, but we’ve yet to talk about it. But in his mind, if that’s what he’s decided, then it's done ... It would be a dream come true."^[22] The film will be a period piece.^[23]

He has also expressed interest in video games after the Hobbit project, and hopes to be able to create a "Citizen Kane of games."^[24] In an MTV News interview in late July 2010, he further clarified that his video game ambitions were a reality, stating that: "One of the things we're announcing in the next few weeks is a big deal with a big company. We're going to do games that are going to be technically and narratively very interesting. It's not a development deal. We're going to do it. We're doing them. And we're going to announce it soon enough."^[25]

As of September 11, 2009 it has been made known that Guillermo del Toro has signed on with The Walt Disney Company to create a new label known as Disney Double Dare You. This new label will seek to create family friendly, all-ages animated projects that still manage to thrill and frighten.^[26] But as of 2012 it is not known if he's still involved with Disney as he currently moved on to DreamWorks Animation since 2010.

In June 2010 news came that Del Toro would be writing and producing a brand new take on the story of Van Helsing. There is no word yet on if he will direct or not.^[27]

At Comic Con 2010, del Toro made the surprise announcement that he will co-write, produce, and likely direct a 3D remake of The Haunted Mansion for Disney. Del Toro says the film will stray away from the comedic nature of the 2003 film and will revolve around the Hatbox Ghost from the ride.^[28]

On 28 July 2010 it was announced that he would direct At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft for Universal Pictures, with James Cameron as producer. The movie was originally set up as a project at DreamWorks in 2004.^[29] Just a month earlier, del Toro said that the Lovecraft adaptation probably wouldn't happen at all; "It doesn't look like I can do it. It's very difficult for the studios to take the step of doing a period-set, R-rated, tentpole movie with a tough ending and no love story. Lovecraft has a readership as big as any best-seller, but it's tough to quantify because his works are in the public domain." Not long after, he was approached by Cameron who asked him if he still wanted to do the movie. When del Toro confirmed he did, Cameron said “Let’s do it.” Both of them put forward the idea for Universal, which then greenlighted it.^[30] Earlier the same year, del Toro also asked S. T. Joshi if he wanted to be a consultant if and when the movie got into motion.^[31] It was rumored that del Toro was approached to direct the new Godzilla movie produced by Legendary Pictures, which he later denied.

Mountains of Madness did not receive the greenlight by Universal Studios, so del Toro's next directorial effort will be the giant monster film Pacific Rim, based on a screenplay by Travis Beacham, which was mistakenly rumored to be the basis for Legendary Pictures' Godzilla reboot, which del Toro was rumored to have been was approached to direct but later denied. Del Toro described the monsters in the film to be "Huge". The film involves giant monsters traveling through a vortex in the pacific rim where they attack major cities and humans must battle them by using mecha suits called Jaegers. He comments,"This is my most un-modest film, this has everything. The scale is enormous and I'm just a big kid having fun."^[32]

Guillermo del Toro has also acquired the rights to produce the movie adaption of David Moody's novel "Hater"

On 18th August 2011 it was announced del Toro is going to be developing a new film version of Beauty and the Beast, with Emma Watson in mind to star. Crazy, Stupid, Love producer Denise Di Novi confirmed the filmmaker’s involvement, and said that she would be co-producing the movie with him.^[33]

On June 2, 2009 Del Toro released his debut novel, The Strain, which he co-authored with Chuck Hogan. It is the first part of a vampire trilogy. The second part, The Fall, was released on Sept. 21, 2010, co-authored by Chuck Hogan as well. October of 2011 the last novel of the trilogy was released, Night Eternal with a possible future series release or movie for the trilogy.

At the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards, Del Toro announced that he is working on his first video game titled Insane, which is planned for release in 2013.

Del Toro also wants to direct a segment for an upcoming Heavy Metal 3.

On 21st September 2010, del Toro announced that he wanted to direct new adaptations of the Stephen King novels It and Pet Sematary, but stated that he is very busy and unlikely to be able to make the films any time soon.^[34]

Personal life[link]

Guillermo del Toro is married to his high school sweetheart Lorenza Newton, cousin of Mexican singer Guadalupe Pineda. He fell in love with Lorenza when both were studying at the Guadalajara School of Sciences. He currently lives in Agoura Hills, California with his wife and two daughters, Mariana and Marisa.^[4] In addition to home in which he lives with his family, he owns a separate house exclusively to house his books, posters artwork and other belongings pertaining to his work, explaining, "As a kid, I dreamed of having a house with secret passages and a room where it rained 24 hours a day. The point of being over 40 is to fulfill the desires you've been harboring since you were 7."^[5]

In a 2007 interview, del Toro described his political position as "a little too liberal". He pointed out that the villains in most of his films, such as the industrialist in Cronos, the Nazis in Hellboy, and the Francoists in Pan's Labyrinth, are united by the common attribute of authoritarianism. "I hate structure. I'm completely anti-structural in terms of believing in institutions. I hate them. I hate any institutionalised social, religious, or economic holding."^[35]

In 2009, in an interview with Charlie Rose, del Toro described his Roman Catholic upbringing as excessively "morbid," saying "I mercifully lapsed as a Catholic, I say, but as Buñuel used to say, "I'm an atheist, thank God." Though insisting he's spiritually "not with Buñuel" and that "once a Catholic, always a Catholic, in a way," he followed by saying, "I believe in man. I believe in mankind, as the worst and the best that has happened to this world."^[36] He has also responded to the observation that he views his art as his religion by saying, "It is. To me, art and storytelling serve primal, spiritual functions in my daily life. Whether I'm telling a bedtime story to my kids or trying to mount a movie or write a short story or a novel, I take it very seriously."^[5]

In a Q&A, del Toro said that he was a fan of first-person shooter video games, citing games like Half-Life, Call of Duty and BioShock and stating that "video games are the comic books of our time... It's a medium that gains no respect among the intelligentsia".^[37] However, del Toro has stated that there are only two games he considers to be true masterpieces: Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.^[38]

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

See also[link]

• Cha Cha Cha Films

References[link]