Hustle & Flow is one of my favorite movies of 2005, and probably a lock for my Top 15 list at the end of the year (although what was once a tough list to fill has become very crowded thanks to a tsunami of high quality films at the end of the year), but I was under the impression it didn’t do as well at the box office as hoped.
Guess I was wrong, as star Terence Howard tells MTV that he’s coming back for a sequel. "’Hustle & Flow 2,’ we’re gonna do it," Howard revealed backstage at the recent Vibe Awards. "We start [filming] at the end of next year… It will be great."
Howard wouldn’t divulge plot details but did say that the film is written and that the rest of the cast is returning.
I have been trying to figure out if this is for real. Howard is a laid back, funny guy in interviews, but I don’t see him being a bullshitter. I think that if he says it, it’s probably so. I also think that this is pretty new – at the recent Get Rich or Die Tryin’ junket, he was asked what his upcoming projects were and only mentioned Joe Louis and Thurgood Marshall biopics.
So let’s assume there is a Hustle & Flow 2 coming – that’s too bad. The original film ends in just the right place, with DeeJay’s slate clean and the possibility of redemption looming large for him. Now a sequel can only be like the Rocky films – either treading water or removing the character from the situations and scenarios that made him great.