New Line Lining Up New "Journey 3D"

Jim here. Few movies say action / adventure like Brendan Frasier movies - and New Line is back asking for more. Who can argue with that? The man has THE MUMMY franchise and now JOURNEY 3D franchise which seems to be growing into a life of its own adapting literary classics.

THR is reporting that a second JOURNEY 3D is in the works after the studio saw that the original made $240 million worldwide plus performed extremely well with DVD sales.

Eric Brevig is returning to helm the adventure and also share in the writing credits.

From THR: "One challenge to mounting a second film was finding a story to tell, since "Journey" author Jules Verne wrote just the one book. One concept considered was setting the story in Atlantis, but with several Atlantis projects under development at other studios and underwater photography costly, it was nixed. The sequel's story line came together by chance when a spec script by Richard Outten, a writer whose last credited work was 1993-94 Fox TV series "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.," landed at Walden. 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."

Brendan Fraser and Josh Hutcherson are also being teed up for another launch into literary history.

I seriously thought that if there was a sequel, that Atlantis would be the focal point as it was hinted at during JOURNEY 3D. But you know - I love the idea of this franchise continuing on by using the classics as fodder for modern 3D. It is a way to mix the old with the new and rely upon proven master storytelling. Look for the second iteration to be wildly more successful than the first as movie goers worldwide become more familiar with the characters involved. I do hope there are no more crying scenes on beaches for Frasier though - it was the biggest downfall of the first go around.