Universal Pulls The Plug On The Croods Sequel

Less than a month after making its debut in March 2013, DreamWorks Animation announced at CinemaCon that a sequel was already being developed for The Croods. The pre-historic themed 3D CG animated comedy adventure received a 74% rating from Top Critics on Rotten Tomatoes, earned $587.2 million at the worldwide box office on a budget of $135 million, and was a Best Animated Feature nominee for the 86th Academy Awards (lost to Disney's Frozen).

However, fast-forward to now, Universal Pictures has officially pulled the plug on The Croods sequel. Donna Langley, the studio's Chairman, went to DreamWorks Animation's Glendale headquarters on Thursday and broke the grim news to the 30 employees that have been working on the film for the past 3 1/2 years.

"The workers were told DreamWorks Animation hopes to keep them at the company," Variety reports. "Some could be shifted to other film projects, while others might be put into training or "artistic development" programs, according to an individual at Universal, who asked not to be named."

Back in April, Comcast announced that its NBC Universal division was acquiring DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion. Some might assume that that deal somehow resulted in The Croods sequel getting nixed, but that doesn't appear to be the case. "Individuals at both DreamWorks and Universal said doubts had been raised about proceeding with Croods 2 even before Universal was put in charge," Variety adds. "Two sources said that Universal was effectively just ratifying a decision already made by DreamWorks Animation to kill the movie."

When Croods 2 was announced, the directors and its star-studded voice-cast of the original were on board to return, and the story was supposedly about Ugga and motherhood. DreamWorks set the film to open on November 3, 2017, but it was pushed back (several times) to January 5, 2018. Last August, The Lego Movie and Hotel Transylvania co-writers Kevin and Dan Hageman were hired to re-write the script.

The Croods (2013) - Surviving in a volcanic world is tough enough, but caveman Grug (Cage) gets a rude awakening when an earthquake forces him to leave behind the only world he knows. With his family in tow, he ventures out into the volatile world in search of a new home. The situation becomes even more complicated when Grug's family - but in particular his eldest daughter (Stone) - become smitten with a nomad (Reynolds) they encounter on their dangerous journey. This quirky, imaginative stranger's search for 'tomorrow' is at odds with Grug's reliance on the traditions of yesterday.

It was written and directed by Academy-Award nominee Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon) and Kirk DeMicco (Space Chimps) and produced by Kristine Belson (How to Train Your Dragon) and Jane Hartwell (Shrek). The film starred Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, and Cloris Leachman.