The Hangover: Part III To Earn The Wolfpack $15 Million Each?

To get The Wolfpack back it is going to cost Warner Bros. a pretty penny! The Hollywood Reporter says Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms are asking for $15 million (against backend) each to reprise their trio of beloved characters for the Los Angeles set The Hangover: Part III, which WB want to shoot this summer for a release Memorial Day weekend 2013. The trio are using their considerable leverage that Warner Bros can't make a follow-up to their $580 million worldwide R-rated comedy phenomenon of 2011 without them and it'll probably work too because WB can't really argue. Oh how the actors have come along way since the below $1 million each paydays the three got back in 2007, though they were made a cool $5 million each last time out with massive bonuses on top that put them into double figures. No word on what kind of money Justin Bartha brings in for these movies though, the poor sod. It's said that WB are desperate to get The Hangover: Part III in cinemas next year as they have lost their Harry Potter cash cow and this summer's The Dark Knight Rises marks the end of the Chris Nolan/Batman money tree for them. They've lost potential franchise starters in Akira, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Arthur & Lancelot and Paradise Lost and The Hangover series is looking all the more valuable to them that it ever has. And striking whilst the iron is hot with filming this summer is a smart move... they'll easily get the money back from the actors in the long run. If The Hangover: Part III does make it in theaters for Memorial Day 2013 it will go straight into a collision course with Universal's Fast & Furious 6 which is due on the same day. The idea for The Hangover: Part III is to return The Wolfpack to Los Angeles and put an ending to the saga, at least for a little while. Director Todd Phillips said last year (though note he isn't yet officially signed on either and is probably spinning his own big money deal right now);

"If we were to do a third one...I think we have a very clear idea where that would head," director Todd Phillips said last year. "It€™s certainly not in the same template that you€™ve seen these movies. The third would be very much a finale and an ending. The most I could say about it, what€™s in my head, and I haven€™t discussed it with these actors, is that it is not following that template but very much a new idea."

WB hired The Hangover: Part II writer Craig Mazin to put together the screenplay on just three days after The Hangover II was released this past May.