Nearly twenty years on, 2004’s “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” remains a sporting comedy classic from its eminently quotable lines to its fun characters and even real-life impact such as ESPN’s annual celebration ‘ESPN8: The Ocho’.
The Rawson Marshall Thurber-helmed comedy stars Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller as rival gym owners who face off in a dodgeball tournament and a superb supporting cast including Christine Taylor, Justin Long, Rip Torn, Stephen Root, Alan Tudyk, Gary Cole and Jason Bateman.
Recently, Long sat down with ComicBook.com (via IndieWire) and revealed that Vaughn has come up with a sequel idea that it seems everyone is happy with, but it’s ultimately waiting on Stiller’s approval:
“Of course I would love to do it, and I hope that it ends up happening, but I think Ben [Stiller] is a little… what he told me on that podcast was that he’s a little trepidatious about doing a sequel to something so beloved, something that people enjoy so much.
It’s very risky. You don’t wanna s— on the original, you want something just as good. So I think he’s a little wary of that, of trying to recreate something that was very specific to that time, but I hope he comes around on it.
Vince is a very convincing person, so I’m just hoping Vince can convince him with his idea. It’s a funny idea, I don’t wanna say what it is. I know Ben loves ‘Dodgeball’ and loves that character. I remember how much fun he had playing it. He was always laughing.”
The apprehension on Stiller’s part is understandable in the wake of the failure of the “Zoolander” sequel, which arrived 15 years after the original. It bombed with critics and at the box-office and was something Stiller himself has called “not a great experience”.
The “Dodgeball” cast previously reunited in 2017 for a charity event, with Long saying: “I remember him [Stiller] talking about how happy it made him playing White Goodman again and how much fun that character was.”
Long was most recently seen in the horror hit “Barbarian” which is now streaming on HBO Max.
