Producer talks Skyline sequel
A couple of weeks ago, The Brothers Strause released their second feature film, Skyline worldwide, and was met with mostly negative reactions from both critics and moviegoers (and you can read Jon’s review here). Of the many complaints about the film, the audience seemed to have had issues within the film’s story. However, if you saw the film, then you know the ending left it wide-open for a sequel (which is already written here).
Producer Liam O’Donnell spoke with Cinematical about the sequel, and that it would certainly answer the issues audience had with the film. “The sequel treatment is very ambitious and addresses a lot of the issues people have with ‘Skyline’,” he said. Those issues would be the lack of action, progress of the story, and last, but not least the undeveloped characters. “It’s more character-driven, it’s not set in one location, it’s action-packed. We’re going to have to see how it plays out,” O’Donnell said. while the film did open fourth during it’s debut weekend, O’Donnell believes a sequel will happen. “International box office has been very strong. Russia alone was around $5.3 million last weekend. I think the film will play great on DVD and cable TV,” he said.
While the ending was mostly panned like the movie, O’Donnell feels that it would definitely ensure a sequel to get made.  “And because our ending is so crazy even people that don’t like ‘Skyline’ have expressed interest in seeing the sequel. So in one form or another the story will be told,” he said. Of course, those who saw the ending realize that it leaves the possibility for an interesting sequel, many probably won’t be anticipating the sequel like they did with Skyline.
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LOL Are you serious? Finally after almost 17 years, I get an alien movie with badass effects and an even more badass ending, and it gets panned? wtf? Were the aerial battles, 100 ft monsters Actually done well ( MUCH better than the Kraken from Clash), AND a nuke not enough? lol I just dont get why critics matter so much… who cares if some talentless couch potatoes give it 2 stars? LOL AMERICA!!!
mc Reply:
April 4th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Skyline was terrible, stuff blew up isn’t enough to make a movie, they made all of the action pointless, shoot them they don’t drop, hit them with a nuke and they’ll get back up, somehow pull them to the ground, pull out their brain and smash it…. and they’ll get back up.
I remember watching the last Matrix where Neo is fighting agent Smith hand to hand…. why? they aren’t real hands, they aren’t really tired, they aren’t really hurt and they both know it, Skyline same thing nothing kills them so why bother?
and the ending with the blue brain to red brain, I’ll give them credit for 10 seconds of the movie I was interested but the movie was 2 hours long, Skyline was horrid.
you have 100 million dollars to make a movie please god spend 100,000 on a good script, Skylines was worth $0.02.
Jon Reply:
April 4th, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Skyline didn’t have a $100 million to spend. It was a DIY sci-fi indie blockbuster.
Matt Keith Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 11:39 am
@” they made all of the action pointless, shoot them they don’t drop, hit them with a nuke and they’ll get back up, somehow pull them to the ground, pull out their brain and smash it…. and they’ll get back up.”
That’s one of the problems I had with the film was how indestructable the aliens were, and it does seem rather pointless. But I do appreciate the movie since it was Indie, and have to applaud them for their effort and work on the special effects.
I am sorry, but that is a shitty movie… i regret having gone to the cinema yesterday… deeply regret it… I mean, I expected a lot more action. The dialogs made no sense and the tension created was useless… i don’t know, i did not like at all…
The actors were fine, i guess… but that was not the problem
Honestly the ending killed me, not because it was bad but because I think it was just touching the main part of the story and now Im left to wait. I wouldn’t slam this as bad, It’s just getting going. Looks as if they could go far with this story. Let the chapters play out now! You more or less kill all of your main stars?!?! Perfect! Lol. No complaints here. =)
With just a few tweeks this would have been a rather good movie. I enjoyed it as is and look forward to the sequel.
I hated the movie so much. It took place entirely in one building. the interaction with the aliens was nonexistent and letting us know even a little about the aliens never happened. it was HORRIBLE. the only reason i read this article was because i was wondering if the movie was so bad but ended like there should be a sequel, if there really would be one. and what sucks is i would watch it since i felt cheated with the first one.
Toby Mulito Reply:
March 15th, 2011 at 11:49 am
the whole point of the movie was to gain a thought of interest. I quite liked it. If they gave the perspective from the aliens side or the army or watever it would have taken away from what the first movie is all about. Survival. If they did what u wanted you would walk away thinking, “well that was a shitty movie, they gave away too much and made it predictable.” or, “they crammed too much into that movie” They made it entertaining my drawing the focus on one set of people. I would agree and it is alot like cloverfield, but the ending is left open to a second movie which will be alot more fulfilling and action packed because of a thing they tastefully did called story progression. I wouldn’t be surprised if it got made into a trilogy, where then you see the view points from aliens, humans and the government. Just be glad that it entertained you for and hour and a half. I doubt in your a sci-fi or action fan you would ask for ur time back.
Jon Reply:
March 15th, 2011 at 11:52 am
Interesting points.
Hey, B Grade movie with a B Grade Budget with great Spec FX. These boys will pop 80mil easy. Piss and moan about the script all you like, at the end of the day they didn’t have $$$ to spend on 1 hour of smash em up scenes – the drama has to be in there to flesh out the movie. Seriously, if they had of spent 300mil on this then I would spew as well, but for the cash spent … fkn fantastic. You want a shit movie – watch The Road with Viggo Mortensen – they spent 200mil+ on that dud and and half of that was just for Viggo and Charlize Theron! Characters in this were better evolved than Independence Day…but I guess you missed that because Will Smith wasn’t there to to get you Jiggy wit it! Seriously – who gave a fuck the presidents wife died? Alot sadder were the 1.2 Billion that were wiped out as every major city in the world was destroyed. Hey, at least the strippers Dog survived, unlike poor old Walt’s dog that didn’t even get named!
I’ve read a lot of negative comments about skyline. And I have to say I thought the movie was OK. Not 10/10 but it was ok.
A lot of people post that they are disappointed with the lack of action and no details about the aliens being revealed.
Isn’t that a bit like real life ? Our real lives are FILLED with boring lack of action, and when we face REAL threats we usually end up in a body bag.
When was the last time a human being working at a chicken processing factory took time to inform the chickens what is about to happen and why ?
The aliens turn up and start harvesting humans.
The aliens just use us for food, and use our brains as well.
We are just a resource to them. Think of the way we RAPE the planet we live on with no regard for it at all.
When i first saw that it only 88 mins i was like D!!n thats a short movie.
Then as i was watching that movie i realized why. They didn’t take any time building the characters at all. The first fourth of the movie was slow and but i though i saw some depth in some of the characters. However as the movie began to hit its action the characters turned flat and 2 dimensional. There was no way to connect with any character cause they all seemed like idiots. As i was watching it i was bored by the characters the actors the script and its predictability, but then it all begins to turn around at the end. Main character dies (which was completely unexpected) and then he gets turned into an “ugly” (The ugly kinda reminds me of another monster… yes! in Resident evil. The 1st Resident Evil, the “big bad” at the end killing by the train.).
The crazy end completely changed by first 70 minutes experience of the movie, i loved it. Forget the slow start, forget the sad character presentation, forget sad characters themselves, forget the first 70 minutes the end gave me hope that the the directors and writers will get their crazy head out of a33. If they get a good script, better actors, 3d characterization and more screen time (come on 88 minutes these days is no movie, it’s like a prologue, GET REAL make it longer so you can get down and dirty with the film.)
P.s Will be watching the sequel when it comes out, so make it good and make it fast. You really left us hanging (not that we didn’t enjoy the end.)
Commentor Reply:
January 12th, 2011 at 2:02 am
PPs. I forgot to mention why i even liked the movie other than the ending being completely radical. Love the concept, not the aliens take over world, harvest brains concept but the fact the his brain taking control over the ugly. The whole presentation in the end makes “Skyline” a very nice option to be made into a game.
The end of the movie i thought the game company launched this little movie as a intro to the new game that would be released (im sure there is one out there now). Think about it, you play this main guy (character left such little impression i only remember his name started with a “J”) as an Ugly beating other uglies, protecting your girl and a main objective to beat the alien invaders from our skies.
This is the type of movie where half of the people criticizing it would be very interested in watching the sequel (fat useless critics-by-trade excluded).
I actually found it to be quite decent and well done.
I’ve seen a some crappy Alien Invasion movies that have been vomited onto the viewing public during this past decade, yet they still received a positive reception, as if the majority of movie fans had become retarded sheep that followed the general consensus of the ass-backwards critics where sci-fi flicks are concerned.
I mean, seriously… Cloverfeild received praising reviews from an overwhelming majority of critics when it was released. Yeah, that piece of crap was raised on a pedestal and worshiped upon by the critic community at released, and hordes of moviegoers eagerly jumped on the freaking bandwagon.
Thank God, several weeks later, the general populace embarrassingly came to their senses in that “huh, I don’t know that guy” sort of way that modern world cultures so often do when their bigger-than-life political leaders finally leave them no more room to love them. You know, like how all the Bush-sheep Americans went from attacking anyone who didn’t agree with any and everything about George W. Bush with rabid screams of the words “YOU’RE unAMERICAN!!”, to conveniently pretending as if they had never praised, supported, honored and worshiped the buffoon.
And we all wonder why we keep getting more crap movies and movie franchises. Yeah lets all rip the Obamas (Skylines) a second hole in their rears, as some twisted means of trying to further bury our shame of having praised upon those Bushes (Cloverfields) in the past. That will definitely brighten up the future for us. -_-
Be sure to thoroughly enjoy the consequences of having movies like Obama not see a second “term” in exchange for a more Bush-like movie that was so praised upon in it’s initial release days in the past. I’ll be sure to thoroughly enjoy what will, no doubt, be your ironic response to those consequences. ^^
I heard all the shitty reviews but it didn’t stop me and my friends from seeing it and we all loved it. I actually saw it twice, and hope the make a sequel.
Who cares what the “critics” say. Skyline was a great entertaining movie. They just need a “neo” hero for it (the couch potato critics have short attention spans and need one guy/gal to focus on) and it will be make lots of bread. Seems like they were going for a Cloverfield effect…well go all in (at least for the action/money shots).
This movie was 1000000% better than Iron Man 2.
For some reason, I’m curious to blind buy this one.
Matt Keith Reply:
March 15th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
I thought the film was a little disappointing when I first saw it. I guess the trailers made it seem a lot better than it actually turned out. I will say that I enjoyed it more than BLA for sure.
In all honesty, I thought that this movie rocked. Look at it this way, if this storyline really did play out and were you to experience it firsthand, you wouldn’t care about how your peers were developing as your main goal would be to survive. Yes, it did take place in one building, but that was because they couldn’t run anywhere. So what! The way the movie added up suspense-wise was perfect. Why say it was horrible because it left the story wide open for a sequel? And if everything was computer animated, we would have been taken further away from the ‘reality’ aspect of the film! They did a wonderful job with the presentation, and they deserve more credit for their work than most of you ‘critics’ are willing to give. I’m pretty sure that when the whole story is laid out, your minds will change and you will feel very foolish for judging something for what you see on the surface to begin with. Face it, if everyone judged you based upon fiirst glance, most of you wouldn’t have any friends. But that’s ‘critics’ for ya!
Matt Keith Reply:
March 22nd, 2011 at 5:25 pm
My main complaint with the film was there wasn’t any action the characters were involved in. Yeah, it’s survival, but there has to be some kind action going on with the characters. Sitting around arguing over second-hand smoke isn’t interesting to me at all. Take Cloverfield for example, the film worked b/c the characters were trying to rescue their friend, and they were put in harms way. in Skyline, the characters were just sitting there arguing about what to do next while it was shown on TV where other people were taking action against the aliens. It was hard for me to care about the characters for that reason.
I’m one of the few that loved the ending, and I think it could make for an interesting sequel. BUT the film felt (to me) that it ended during the second act, and was unfinished.
I’ll check the film out again now that it’s on DVD/Blu-ray, and may be I’ll enjoy it more.
So y was the main character the only one pissed off and able to control himself as a monster? Independence Day owns this movie through and through. Probably because it had top tier actors who could act. Kinda cheesy copying the “Day 1″, “Day 2″ ect. The biggest problem is the acting. It was laughable.