Ryan Gosling is revealing why sequel ideas for “The Nice Guys” flew the coop.
The Oscar-nominated actor reflected on the Shane Black-helmed 2016 dark comedy that was rumored to land a follow-up. However, according to Gosling, there was no “The Nice Guys” sequel due to animated film “The Angry Birds Movie” taking over their shared box office weekend.
Turns out, “Barbenheimer” isn’t the only double feature that Gosling has been a part of.
“So much of a sequel, I think, is decided by the opening weekend of a movie, and we opened up against ‘Angry Birds’,” Gosling told Comic Book. “So ‘Angry Birds’ just destroyed us. ‘Angry Birds’ got a sequel.”
“The Angry Birds Movie” had more than three times the opening weekend box office gross as “The Nice Guys,” with “Angry Birds” landing $38 million and “The Nice Guys” being at $11.2 million. The feature was made with an estimated budget of $50 million and ended its box office run with $62.8 million. “The Angry Birds Movie” had a 2019 sequel.
“The Nice Guys” was set in 1977 Los Angeles, with Gosling playing a private investigator alongside his partner (Russell Crowe) as they try to unravel the disappearance of a teenage girl. The film debuted at Cannes.
Director Black told IndieWire that “The Nice Guys” was in the works since 2001, and was reinvented as a TV show for CBS in 2006 before becoming a feature released in 2016.
“Finally, in 2014 we put it out one last time and Ryan Gosling looked at it and his agent said, ‘This is the sort of thing Ryan’s looking for,’” Black recalled. “Within three days Russell Crowe said ‘I like it, and if Ryan’s doing it, I’ll do it.’ After 13 years it just popped into place in three days.”
Black added of his signature dark comedy tone, “The problem I see in a lot of films these days is the assumption you can only have one tone in a movie. Either it’s somber and tough or it’s light and funny. ‘Nice Guys’ has darkness in it and parts that are kind of odd, but there are also parts where it’s heartfelt and soulful. You can switch back and forth.”
Gosling is currently leading another “Guy” movie, this time with meta Hollywood comedy “The Fall Guy” about a stunt performer who is tasked with finding a missing actor.
