Gerard Butler Disaster Movie With 18% RT Score Gets Candid Reflection & Sequel Update From Director: “We Barely Survived”

As Gerard Butler forges ahead in the genre with a different property, Dean Devlin is candidly reflecting on his experience with Geostorm. Co-written, co-produced and directed by Devlin, frequent collaborator of Independence Day‘s Roland Emmerich, the 2017 movie is set in a world in which climate-controlling satellites have been created to combat a series of catastrophic natural disasters, only for a saboteur to get access to it and unleash mayhem. Led by Butler, Jim Sturgess and Abbie Cornish, Geostorm was an infamous critical and commercial bomb, losing Warner Bros. a reported $71.6 million.

During a recent interview with Inverse to discuss The Ark season 2’s release, Devlin was asked about Geostorm and the potential for a sequel. The director/co-writer/co-producer got candid in his reflection on the 2017 movie, recalling being replaced and having “60% of the movie” re-written and re-shot, but expressed an interest in seeing a sequel made to it, or an original director’s cut. See what Devlin said below:

We barely survived Geostorm 1. The truth of the matter is I was replaced on Geostorm. Someone else rewrote and redirected 60% of the movie. So it’s not my film. If they ever want to go back and restore my version of the film, I’d be happy to do that, and I’d be happy to go do a sequel to that.

Butler’s Upcoming Disaster Movie Sequel Can Redeem Geostorm’s Failure

At the time of Geostorm‘s release, the disaster movie genre was on a notably downward trend both in popularity and overall reception. Though the Mark Wahlberg-led Deepwater Horizon and Chris Pine-starring The Finest Hours both scored largely favorable reviews from critics, both were notable box office bombs, with the former losing the studio an estimated $60-112 million, while the latter lost a reported $75 million. This time period also saw a variety of intentionally campy titles, namely the Sharknado franchise.

Though Geostorm nearly continued the downfall of the disaster movie genre, there have been a few recent hits, one of which Butler himself led with 2020’s Greenland. In addition to netting a Certified Fresh approval rating of 78% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie also became a financial success, grossing over $52 million amid its COVID-19-based release, though saw even further success on VOD, with reports of STX Films seeing upwards of $80 million in profit. This success has even led to the development of Greenland: Migration, which will see Butler returning to lead the sequel’s cast.

With a number of Butler’s recent movies seeing both critical and commercial success in the years since Geostorm‘s release, not only can Greenland: Migration continue this success, but also further redeem him in the world of the disaster genre. That being said, even in the midst of this success, it does seem unlikely that a Geostorm sequel will ever happen, not only because of the 2017 movie’s box office struggles, but also its critical failures.

Source: Inverse

Geostorm

Geostorm is a sci-fi thriller starring Gerard Butler as satellite designer Jake Lawson who discovers a problem with an international satellite system developed to counter climate change. When the satellites malfunction, causing a dangerous and gigantic storm that threatens to obliterate the planet, Jake and a group of other officials must race to solve the problem before the storm swallows them whole. 

Director

Dean Devlin
, Danny Cannon

Release Date

October 13, 2017

Studio(s)

Warner Bros. Pictures

Distributor(s)

Warner Bros. Pictures

Writers

Dean Devlin
, Paul Guyot

Cast

Jim Sturgess
, Gerard Butler
, Daniel Wu
, Abbie Cornish
, Alexandra Maria Lara
, Ed Harris
, Andy Garcia

Runtime

109minutes

Budget

$120–130 million

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