Rob Schneider Is Returning To One Of His Most Famous Roles
Rob Schneider is developing The Animal 2; a sequel to his 2001 comedy.
A few days back it was revealed that Adam Sandler was open to reprising his role as Bobby Boucher in a sequel to The Waterboy, and now, according to MovieWeb, his close friend and former Saturday Night Live co-star, Rob Schneider is currently planning a sequel to one of his own comedies, The Animal. Deadline recently reported that Schneider was hard at work developing The Animal 2, and he will be returning as Marvin Mange, the animalistic police evidence clerk from the first film, who after receiving organ transplants from various animal donors, finds himself taking on the traits of those animals. The sequel is apparently on the brink of being greenlit by the streaming platform Tubi.
Rob Scneider co-wrote the script for the upcoming sequel alongside his wife, Patricia Schneider, and writing partner, Jamie Lissow. The story will see Marvin coming out of retirement following an accident that sets him on a mission to put himself back together again with new animal parts. To make matters worse, he’ll be forced to learn new tricks as he hunts a new uber-animal with powers far greater than his own.
In addition to penning the screenplay, Rob Schneider will also direct the picture and serve as producer alongside Zero Gravity’s Michael McConnel. Executive producing the film are Scott Hemming of Content Partner’s Revolution Studios, Zero Gravity Management’s Michael McConnell, and Marianne Wunch, Ani Kevork, and Fernando Szew of MarVista Entertainment. The sequel is scheduled to start production early next year for a 2023 debut on the streaming service Tubi.
The announcement of the forthcoming follow-up comes more than two decades after The Animal was released in theaters. Oddly enough, reception for the 2001 comedy was quite negative, with a 30% rotten rating from critics and a 28% rotten rating from traditional audiences. His role in the film was one of several that landed Rob Schneider a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actor of the Decade in 2010.
Luckily, Rob Schneider continues to stay busy, as he currently has multiple projects in the works. In addition to The Animal 2, the actor is set to both star in and direct the upcoming romantic comedy Amor es amor, which centers on an up-and-coming Mexican Telenovela actor on the verge of becoming a leading man, but he’s forced to hide his true self in order to achieve stardom. Schneider and his wife, Patricia, co-wrote the script for the film that’s targeting a 2022 release date.
Stepping out of his comfort zone a bit, Rob Schneider is also set to appear alongside Derek Smith, Katrina Bowden, Blake Shields, and Chelsea Debo in the upcoming crime flick Dead Wrong, which follows a narcissist who concocts a get-rich-quick scheme that ignited a violent chain reaction and overwhelms the lives of those around him. Rick Bieber directs the movie from a script he wrote that is based on the novel Deadly Instinct. As of this writing, the film doesn’t have a release date.
Although The Animal 2 is a sequel nobody asked for, it will be interesting to see Rob Schneider return to a role he hasn’t portrayed in over twenty years. Tubi doesn’t have a great track record with their original features, but perhaps the Schneider-directed flick will break that cycle for the platform. Then again, the upcoming comedy may land Schneider another Razzie nomination, but we won’t know until sometime next year when the film debuts.
