With the news that Goonies 2 is moving into development under the stewardship of Steven Spielberg and that the film will feature the children of the original cast as the next generation of Goonies, speculation has run rampant for what are already considered the most coveted roles of 2014. While many details about the sequel are still a mystery, we were lucky enough to steal a few minutes of Mr. Spielberg’s time to chat about the ‘millennial’ Goonies.
“The time has never been better for a teen coming-of-age adventure film. There just aren’t enough of them these days.” Spielberg told us. “And we’re going to up both the sci-fi elements AND the supernatural. It’ll be like the Goonies meets sci-fi and supernatural. No wait, Twilight, that and…Robocop? No, Divergence! It’ll be Goonies meets Twilight meets Hunger Games. Total hole in the market there.”
Spielberg then confirmed the inclusion of fan favorite “Data” and how the film will treat the technological advances that might have made the original plot unworkable. “Data is going to be a key character and his son, ‘HTML5’, is the MacGuffin that drives the entire plot forward. Over the past 30 years, Data has taken his love of gadgets to the extreme and become the world’s leading cybernetics developer. In the sequel he’s outfitted his son with a variety of the most advanced military implants. HTML5 is super strong, can jump 8 stories, has infrared vision, arm cannons, and several surprises that we’re not ready to spoil until the second trailer drops. But I will tell you he can tap right into the internet through a wifi connection inside his teeth. So, yeah, the movie’s going to be about that, I think. That and One-eyed Willie. Or aliens. Shit, I have it. One-eyed Willie returns from the grave to seek revenge on the original Goonies and it’s up to their children to stop him! Kids love zombies. And Data’s son, cyborg hero HTML5, will be our last line of defense against the pirate-zombie apocalypse. We’re gonna make a gazillion bucks.” “What other characters? Oh, those, yeah, um, wasn’t the Brolin kid in Jonah Hex or some other western or something? He’ll have guns in this too.” He continued, “I mean, George gave R2 flight thrusters and flame throwers, no way I’m being outdone.”
Spielberg said of the casting “Honestly, the biggest shock in getting the cast together is that it turns out Corey Feldman is alive. I thought we were going to have CG him in. When I found that out we had to make this movie happen.”
But this isn’t the first next-gen 80s sequel for Spielberg. And when we asked about the mental trauma and complete psychotic breakdown Indiana Jones 4 caused star Shia LaBeouf and if there are any concerns that something similar might happen on Goonies 2, say, if it’s terrible, universally rejected, and viewed as desecrating an adventure classic (not that that’ll happen, just saying “what if”) Spielberg just kept muttering “cyborg fighting pirate-zombies, I’m a genius.”
