Director
Joe Carnahan always had plans to direct a straight to DVD follow-up prequel to his movie
Smokin' Aces. The trouble came when the movie didn't do so well at the Box Office (a fine $53 million worldwide but not a figure that cries out "sequel") plans of any future movies in the series were scrapped. However, Smokin' Aces is said to be selling very well on DVD and it's gathering somewhat of a cult following. Now, there may very well be a follow-up movie after all...
Universal wants to move ahead with a direct-to-video prequel of Smokin and asked me if I wanted to Godfather the thing and make sure we did a really cool story, Caranhan reveals. The DVD numbers Smokin Aces has done are astounding and they want to strike while the iron is hot. Whatever reluctance I have is alleviated by the fact that we can really do this balls out, hardcore prequel and not be constrained by ratings or any other puritanical MPAA bullsh*t. That I love.
Carnahan's original idea was for the prequel to revolve around The Tremor Brothers. They of course were the Neo-Nazi redneck assassins played by
Chris Pine,
Kevin Durand and
Maury Sterling. There's no reason for us to presume those plans have changed. This has to be a win-win situation for Carnahan. He gets to make any type of fun movie he likes, he can experiment if he wants too, blow some shit up and forget about narrative structure all together. Basically he can just go out and have fun... and if the movie gets a cult following then all the better for his reputation. If it fails... who cares? It's under the radar and he got to have some fun making it! source -
slash film