Inside Man 2 Enters Script Stage

Spike Lee isn’t just a Clint Eastwood hating potty mouth. No, he makes movies too. One of his best was the Denzel Washington starring Inside Man that came out in 2006. Well, Spike Lee isn’t really known for his sequel joints but Inside Man has him thinking franchise isn’t a dirty word.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, a sequel to Inside Man is moving forward at Universal. Terry George (Hotel Rwanda, In the Name of the Father) is in negotiations to write the screenplay which would bring Lee back to direct.

The idea is that the film will pick up on the characters and the dynamic between them, but not really on the storyline of the first film. The first Inside Man was written by Russell Gewirtz and centered on a standoff between a bank robber (Clive Owens) and a hostage negotiator (Denzel Washington) at a New York bank (Jodie Foster starred as well).

Lee says he foresees that the new film will continue the relationship between the two main characters but in a new high-tension situation. “I want the script to be even better than Russell’s, and Russell wrote a really good script,” he said.

The original Inside Man was one of Lee’s biggest hits. It scored him his biggest opening weekend when it was released in spring 2006 and went on to earn more than $175 million worldwide.

Lee says that Denzel Washington and Clive Owen are interested in re-teaming for the project.

Like I said, I actually liked the first one, so I don’t think this is a bad idea. Washington and Owen are both stars (Owen is even more of a star now) so they could probably open a sequel pretty big (not sure if Jodie Foster is on board). I’m not a huge Spike Lee fan by any means so I, personally, would much rather he stick to more mainstream fare like this than some of the other stuff he’s done.

And maybe leave Clint Eastwood alone.