'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' Co-Creator Reveals Update to Sequel
Phil Lord and Chris Miller have constructed a collection of cinematic classics that have innovated and resuscitated the action-adventure comedy genre for over a decade. They were godsends to Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures with megahits like 21 Jump Street (2012), The Lego Movie (2014), The Lego Batman Movie (2017), and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018). Yet, one of their biggest successes stemmed from their first big break — the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs franchise.
Sony Pictures dipped their big toe into the animation world with Open Season in 2006. It would become a moderate success at the box office that would lead to another fan-favorite animated film, Surf’s Up (2007). Then the debut of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009) would become Sony Pictures Animation’s smash hit. It would go onto gross over $243 million at the box office, with an additional $66 million in DVD sales.
The story centered around an accident prone, but brilliant inventor named Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader). While most of his inventions had never amounted to much commercial achievements, he would go onto invent a machine that allowed for food to rain down from the sky in his isolated island town. The experimental creation would go haywire and several giant house-crushing donuts later, Flint would devise a plan to save the town and potentially the world.
After the critical and financial triumph of the first film, Phil Lord and Chris Miller had to put the sequel on hold as they were being offered numerous projects. The filmmaking duo would eventually return to the series as producers to make Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 in 2013. The second installment did even better than the first as it grossed over $274 million worldwide. It was another well-received victory for the creative couple as audiences were enthralled with the charming, silly and occasionally irreverent humor of this celebrated franchise.
Due to the sequel’s success, most critics and fans assumed there would be a third film to complete the trilogy. Unfortunately, after 10 years there has been no news about its fate until recently. Co-creator, Phil Lord recently divulged that there was supposed to be another movie, but it never entered physical production. He confessed that the script was finished and it was going to be sub-titled — Planet of the Grapes.
There was a script! The title was PLANET OF THE GRAPES
— Phil Lord (@philiplord) September 22, 2023
Even though the last installment never came to fruition, Netflix would pick up the franchise to make a popular animated series in 2017. The directors of the second movie, Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn, expressed previously that they are willing to do a third entry as they have the animators and actors on board to do so when the studio decides to make it a priority (post-strikes.) Until then, Sony Pictures Animation is riding the high of award-winning triumphs like Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse and The Mitchells vs. The Machines.
Would you want to see a third Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs movie after a 10-year hiatus? Should it take off right after the second or acknowledge the decade long gap?
