If you couldn’t get enough of the emotional story and captivating visuals of 2014 indie animation The Book Of Life, you’ll be thrilled to learn that the film is officially getting a sequel.
Variety reports that the Dallas-based Reel FX Animation Studios is reteaming with The Book Of Life director Jorge R Guiterrez to bring the sequel to life.
Gutierrez said the original film “core of the Day of the Dead: That if you talk about someone, sing their songs, remember them they are with you.”
“The sequel grew from that and people asking what was gonna happen with the characters, what’s gonna happen to the gods? The sequel embraces all these things and, in a weird way, is a continuation of the story with everybody you love from the first movie.”
“The Book of Life 2 will be the continuation of an extraordinary story that technically and creatively captures the vision Jorge had of this fabulous world,” said Chuck Peil, the head of business development for Reel FX. “The original film broke ground in so many ways and we hope that the sequel will have the same impact for the fanbase.”
The news was announced at the year’s Annecy Festival, alongside some more news that Reel FX is also currently working on another animated genre film called Kung Fu Space Punch. If that title alone isn’t enough to make you want to see it, Reel FX describe as a “funny mash-up of 90s Kung Fu films, Spaghetti Westerns of the 60s, and the epic space adventures of the 70s, 80s and today.”
Check out a piece of key art for the film, as well as the synopsis, below:
Johnny Holliday, a charming American biker space outlaw, leads a motley wild bunch of rebel bandits in a collision course with legendary villain Kathulo to determine the fate of the galaxy. Along the way, Johnny also has to face off with Ramona Sanchez, a hot-headed childhood rival who now protects their town of Rio Bravo as a hard-ass hardcore cop, enforcing the law with an iron fist.
As well as The Book Of Life 2, Guiterrez is also set to direct Kung Fu Space Punch. He said: “I want to make a movie about an American Kung Fu cowboy guy in space who falls in love with a Mexican girl. I love outlaws that go to Mexico and find their souls. I love Westerns. It’s my favourite genre. As a Mexican, we are always the bad guys, I like the ones where the bad guys are Americans.
“Movies are not about characters, or worlds, or stories,” he continued. “I believe movies are about relationships. For me that’s the core of the film: A Mexican girl and American guy. In the movie, Johnny has to grow a conscience and Ramona has to grow a heart… Guillermo [del Toro] advised me that these days you can’t just write a story, it’s transmedia, you are building a world that exists outside the movie.”
The Book Of Life 2 and Kung Fu Space Punch don’t yet have release dates. Get all the latest fantasy news with every issue of SciFiNow.