TRIPLETS Happening With Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito & Tracy Morgan
Movies In Focus first wrote about Triplets way back in March 2012. Now, nearly a decade on from that and 33 years since the release of Twins comes the news that Triplets is gearing-up for production with Ivan Reitman directing Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito and Tracy Morgan.
Back in 2012, the plan was for Reitman to produce and not direct – and at that point Eddie Murphy was in the frame to play the long lost sibling of Schwarzenegger and DeVito’s Julius and Vincent. However, Murphy’s packed schedule means that the actor will be replaced by Morgan.
Universal Pictures and Reitman’s Montecito Picture Company originally developed the project, but Universal is now out of the picture because contractual terms meant they lost the rights if the sequel wasn’t made within a certain time frame. The film is now being touted for sale at the Toronto Film Festival, with the intention being to shoot in January 2022.
Josh Gad and Ryan Dixon wrote the first draft of the script, but the newest version has been penned by Dylan Dawson & Lucas Kavner.
Budgeted at just $15 million, Twins grossed $111 million at the US box office and over $216 million globally when it was released in 1988.
Ivan Reitman spoke to Deadline in great detail about the movie – check-out what he had to say below.
“Twins was quite successful, and some years after, this whole thing started with Arnold meeting Eddie Murphy, and the suggestion came from one of them. It was, ‘I should be a triplet, that could be a very funny comedy.’ We started a script with Eddie, and after the success he had with Amazon Prime on Coming 2 America, he got himself booked up heavily. And we knew we were going to make it at the beginning of next year. I’d been good friends with Tracy Morgan for a long time and always thought he was one of the funniest men in the world. I thought he would make a terrific triplet, and we rewrote the whole script for him. Now, we’ll go out and try and put the money together and get it made.”
“We had this fabulous deal we made with Tom Pollock, who wound up being my partner at Montecito Pictures. It was his first picture as the chairman of Universal. He loved the script and really believed in it. We decided we would do this where there was very little money upfront. We made the movie for $15 million. But it came with a lot of gross and so we ended up doing very well. In terms of future rights, Universal had very restrictive secondary rights in terms of sequels. They had to act on it very quickly, which they didn’t, because we hadn’t really developed it.”
Secretly, there was a third baby born, a Black baby, who hasn’t been in touch with his siblings. They don’t know each other and very early in the movie they meet and it’s how they achieve a bond together after all these years. It’s really a film about family and, no matter how different we all are, we have to learn to get along. These guys have great chemistry together, and you can see that in the reel, and how much energy they bring out in each other.
”We need the winter and my guess is we probably shoot in Boston. It looks great and has mountains nearby, and has a good tax deal. We’re dealing with this as an independent, and we want to keep the costs low. It worked out very well for us in Twins, I see no reason not to do that here.”
“I haven’t directed in a couple years, but Arnold kept saying, ‘c’mon, we had such a great time.’ I just called him in Budapest and he’s so excited to see how people respond to the reel as we send it out. The initial reaction has been very strong, and how young Arnold and Danny look and how great the chemistry is with Tracy. I had a great time doing the first one, and this is going to be fun.”
Source: Deadline
