The original “Meet the Parents” was one of those comedies that you thought could be cute, but then ends up being flat out hilarious. I just loved that movie and for me it ranks up there amongst my favorite Ben Stiller films. Robert Di Nero showed he does indeed have some comedic chops and the whole thing just hit note after note as far as I’m concerned.
However, the sequel curse struck a harsh blow as the much anticipated follow up, “Meet the Fockers” just completely suked. Seems like any comedy sequel Di Nero tries to do is doomed (Analyze This = Awesome. Analyze That = puke).
Oh sure, the film had Dustin Hoffman, which is always a good thing, but the character and dialog they gave him were eye rollingly horrible and even he couldn’t save it. It was just a terrible, terrible film. So you’d think they’d just leave well enough alone and end the franchise right? Wrong.
We’ve known for some time that the studio had ideas about doing Little Fockers, but things had been quite for a while and hope sprang anew that maybe the project was killed. No such luck. They’re still moving forward… and it looks like they need a new director too. The good folks over at ComingSoon give us this:
Jay Roach, who directed the first two films and had been loosely attached to direct this one, will not helm the film. He is instead concentrating on Dinner for Schmucks for DreamWorks and Parkes/Bowles and only will produce “Fockers.” Producers instead are out to a handful of top comedy directors (including Paul Weitz, David Wain, and Peyton Reed) and hope to close a deal imminently for shooting to start as early as summer or fall. Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro and Owen Wilson are in negotiations to star in Little Fockers, which is expected to revolve around the children of Stiller and Teri Polo, who plays his wife.
Oh good… not only are they beating a dead horse into glue… they’re going to focus the movie on kids! Yay!
Well… at least this movie is set up nicely to be a pleasant surprise, because my expectations can’t be any lower. What about you? Do you have hope for Little Fockers?
