For some reason it's always been known as Welcome To The Jungle around this neck of the woods. According to director Peter Berg (and some of the dialogue, and the song over the end credits), however, the official title of his 2003 Dwayne Johnson-starring comedy action epic remains The Rundown. It wasn't a film that was greatly loved at the time, but has rightly picked up a fond following in the decade since its release, to the extent that Berg is often asked about a sequel. And hey, it turns out he's had another Rundown in the works for ages!
The original, you'll recall, saw his Rockness playing bounty hunter Beck, sent to Brazil to run down Seann William Scott, encountering a hot love interest in Rosario Dawson, and getting on the wrong side of villainous local magnate Christopher Walken. Arnold Schwarzenegger had a brief cameo, and Ewen Bremner was in it too. There were "boos" on the "grind".
Collider collared Berg on the publicity trail for his Navy SEAL action drama Lone Survivor, and were surprised at the scoopy response to their casual question about the likelihood of a Rundown 2 ever materialising. "People asking about that never gets old," Berg enthused. "We just met with writers, I've talked to Dwayne, I have an actor in mind that I want to work with Dwayne on it. I want to do it! We're trying to do it!"
Nothing in the way of actual detail then, but a definite statement of intent and a strong indication that the thrust of any potential follow-up would be a new and different mission for Beck (rather than any sort of sequel-logic reunion with Scott's character). Does this mean Beck's cherished dream of opening a restaurant fell through? Say it ain't so!
With no deals in place and writers only just in the picture, it's obviously still a way off yet and may never happen at all. But fingers crossed all round: it's just a shame this didn't happen sooner.
Elsewhere in the Peter Berg-verse, the director laments that his mooted Friday Night Lights movie, spinning out from the TV series, is now definitely not happening. He'll next direct Mark Wahlberg in American Desperado, and Lone Survivor, starring Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Eric Bana, is out in the UK on January 31.