Peter Berg Says a Version of The Rundown Sequel Took Place in Alaska, Featured Walruses

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The Rundown is a terrific action film, and it’s one of the movies that helped launch Dwayne Johnson to superstardom. For those who haven’t seen it, Johnson plays Beck, an aspiring restauranteur who’s trying to get the money to open up his restaurant by bringing home the wayward son (Seann William Scott) to his mobster father. This requires Beck to go to jungle where he is attacked by mercenaries, indigenous people, strange fruits, and monkeys. It’s a blast.

The film came out in 2003, and fans have been clamoring for a sequel ever since. Peter Berg, who directed the film, has danced around the possibility of sequel for years (I’ve been writing about The Rundown 2since 2009), expressing interest but noting that it’s a matter of getting all the right pieces together.

Steve Weintraub recently spoke to Berg at the press day for his new film, Mile 22, and brought up The Rundown 2 again. This time Berg talked about an idea they ultimately decided to scrap:

We keep talking about doing another one. Here’s the problem. We started to do another one, but the script for it, but the script was written for Alaska, in the really, really cold weather. Remember the monkey scene in The Rundown where the monkeys mount his face? We had a similar scene with walruses. It got a little sexual between Beck and the walruses. But how can you throw an opponent at Dwayne that’s rough and tough and menacing and maybe a little sexual. And we came up with walruses.

And everything was going great until we realized Dwayne was an island boy and there was no way he was going up to Alaska for three or four months, so we’re rebooting. I think we might see another one one day.

Berg added that it’s 50/50 that the film could happen, but it won’t be happening in Alaska. There’s still the possibility of getting Johnson and Jonah Hill, but as Berg notes, everyone got busy so the project is on the backburner.

Personally, I don’t see this project ever happening. The truth of the matter is that while The Rundown has a devoted fanbase, the film only made $80 million worldwide on a budget of $85 million, and the DVD market that could prop up the film has faded away. Also, while everyone wants to be in the Dwayne Johnson business, Johnson is incredibly busy and has films lined up into 2020. I’m sure we’ll keep asking Berg about the sequel every time we interview him, but the answer will likely always be a variation of “we’re working on it.”

Check out the video above. Mile 22 opens August 17th.

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