Hard Core Logo sequel films ready to rock
Hard Core Logo is set to become a movie franchise.
A sequel to the cult classic will begin shooting early next year with a third instalment to follow shortly thereafter, says director Bruce McDonald.
Plans are afoot for a fourth ó maybe even a fifth ó film inspired by a fake Canadian punk band called Hard Core Logo that implodes while on an ill-fated reunion tour in 1996.
Despite the dire ending that marks the original film, the possibilities for sequels are endless, McDonald insists.
“We’ve got a little juggernaut lined up,” McDonald says from his downtown office while taking a break from editing his current project, Pontypool.
“You look at Planet of the Apes ó they squeezed five (films) out of that. And Saw is up to five now and Rocky is probably up to seven, so we’re thinking, ‘Well, why not build our own little army?’ ”
McDonald isn’t about to reveal how the film’s hero, Joe Dick, played by Hugh Dillon, comes back from the dead, but says “it’s quite cleverly worked out and it’s very satisfying.”
He says he wants shooting to take place in January and February for Hard Core Logo II: Still Hard. The story picks up about 10 years after the original left off, with the film sticking to a mockumentary style.
Part three ó tentatively titled Hard Core Logo: 45s (as in the gun, someone’s age and those vinyl records) ó will be shot more in a straight-up feature style and picks up roughly six months later. It was written by Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor.
No. 4 centres on the 17-year-old daughters of Joe Dick and Billy Talent, who are in high school and have a band called Sex Chimes. This one is written by Fubar co-writer/star Paul Spence.
McDonald even muses about a fifth film, which he suggests could throw back to a 1981 version of the band, touring with the Dead Kennedys and X.
McDonald says shooting depends on when he can snag Dillon, now starring on the police series Flashpoint, which was picked up for a second season.
Meanwhile, Callum Keith Rennie, who played fame-hungry guitarist Billy Talent, has been busy shooting 10 episodes of the David Duchovny series, Californication.
“You just hope to God you can kind of secure everybody and everybody’s available at the right time. This is probably the biggest challenge,” McDonald says.
McDonald says the sequel also reunites John Pyper-Ferguson as bassist John Oxenberger, Bernie Coulson as drummer Pipefitter and Julian Richings as the band’s mentor, Bucky Haight.
And like the original, some rock’n’ roll cameos are planned. McDonald says they include punk veteran Henry Rollins, British DJ and musician Don Letts and Canadian rockers Billy Talent, who turn up as a band being managed by Rennie’s character.
McDonald says the real-life Billy Talent were hard core fans of the film, and sent him backstage passes to an arena show last year as thanks for inspiring the group’s name.
“It’s a real kick, you know, when you kind of weirdly become a part of the zeitgeist or the things that you make are travelling on other roads and making other things click,” he says.
It would seem the time is ripe for a sequel. Maybe even four.
Earlier this month at a revue theatre, fans held a Hard Core Logo tribute night featuring a screening, a Q&A with McDonald and others involved in the film, and a live cover band. Fans were invited to sing along to the soundtrack and McDonald says he was astounded by how many actually knew the words to songs like Son of a Bitch to the Core and Edmonton Block Heater.
“We were just kind of floored at the great embrace,” he says of the film, which debuted as an underground indie but over the years has picked up a mountain of fans including director Quentin Tarantino, who picked up the U.S. distribution rights.
“It’s been a slow rolling thunder from the premiere and because of the life on DVD and people passing it around amongst themselves and sending it to friends in Germany and Alabama,” McDonald says.
“It’s developed its own little mythologies and so we want to do the fans proud and make a kick-ass follow-up.”
“We’re very proud of the first movie and we want to do more than just exploit it, we want to kind of make something brand new that is sort of inspired by it. I have sort of mixed feelings sometimes, you’re not quite sure if you should be digging up corpses and walking them around…but it’s good. It feels like the right time.”
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