Gerard Butler‘s long-awaited “Greenland” sequel is finally set to go into production in April, Variety can confirm.
The disaster film, titled “Greenland: Migration,” will see Butler reunite with director Ric Roman Waugh and “Greenland” writer Chris Sparling. “Deadpool” star Morena Baccarin will also return for the sequel.
Sparling has co-written “Greenland: Migration” alongside Mitchell Lafortune.
In “Greenland,” Butler starred as John Garrity, a structural engineer who attempts to flee Atlanta along with his wife Allison (played by Baccarin) and diabetic son Nathan (Roger Dale Floyd) after a comet threatens to destroy the planet. After John, Allison and Nathan are separated, the family struggles to reunite while fragments of the comet rain down on earth, threatening an extinction-level event.
In the sequel, which is set after the comet has decimated earth, the Garrity family are forced to embark on a perilous journey across what’s left of Europe to find a new home.
The original film, which was released during the 2020 pandemic, took in over $50 million in box office receipts.
Despite that, the sequel soon found itself in development hell after one of its co-producers, STX Entertainment, was put up for sale.
In 2021, STX reportedly paid $75 million for domestic and international rights to “Greenland 2” in one of the biggest Cannes deals that year, before putting the movie into bankruptcy protection just a year later as it searched for a buyer. STX was eventually acquired by the Najafi Companies in 2022.
As Variety reported at the time, the bankruptcy filing was an attempt to avoid co-producers Anton from terminating STX’s rights to the film and going forward with the sequel as a sole producer.
Thunder Road Pictures’ Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee are producing “Greenland: Migration” alongside Anton’s Sébastien Raybaud and John Zois, G-BASE’s Butler and Alan Siegel, and CineMachine’s Brendon Boyea. Robert Simonds, Noah Fogelson and Sam Brown exec produce for STX Entertainment, while Roman Waugh exec produces for CineMachine. Chris Sparling is also an EP.
“We are thrilled to have Gerard, Morena and Ric back on board for ‘Greenland: Migration’ to show the audiences what happened next to the Garrity family,” said Raybaud. “To be back working with the teams at G-BASE, Thunder Road, CineMachine and STX, we know the next installment will be just as captivating as the first.”
Anton and STX are co-producing and co-financing the project, while STX is repping global distribution.