James L. Brooks gives an update on The Simpsons Movie sequel

October 7th 2014, 8:16pm

Over a quarter of a century old and The Simpsons is still a part of everyday pop culture; while it’s easy to point out a decline in popularity, the fact is the longest running animated show in history has nothing more to prove but continues to entertain us. You might quote it from day-to-day, watch a marathon or even play along on your mobile. It’s hard to believe that it wasn’t until 2007 that we got our first feature length movie, and for some maybe even harder to believe that it was pretty awesome.

The Simpsons is a business now and the folks at Fox are very aware of that fact; so much so that they are wondering when they are going to get a sequel to THE SIMPSONS MOVIE.

James L. Brooks spoke to the Hollywood Reporter and said when asked if there would be a sequel:

Perhaps [there will be another one]. We’ve been asked to [develop it], but we haven’t. We’re doing a lot of other stuff.

He mentioned how difficult the first movie was to make:

I don’t know what it’d be like a second time. The first time it was, you know, we felt we were risking everything, risking everything about The Simpsons. What if the movie stunk and stuff like that. And I think it took us two years just to get loose. Just to breathe a little like we do on the show. And so it was a murderous two years until we got there. We had a script and then I was able to buy time for a while and then we had to agree to an exact deadline. It took us two years to try and act like we didn’t give a shit, which the show needs a little bit. You know, the show needs that quality. The movie needed that quality.

For any Simpsons fan out there, if you’d like some more details on just how hard the movie was to get made, I point you towards the commentary tracks on THE SIMPSONS MOVIE Blu-ray and DVD. There is some really interesting trivia in there including the fact that once upon a time James L. Brooks suggested that the Kamp Krusty episode be turned into the feature movie!

There’s no question why Fox would want another movie; THE SIMPSONS MOVIE cost $75 million to make and grossed $527 million worldwide. Personally I’d like to see The Simpsons bow out soon; my dream would be that because it takes so long to write and produce each episode, maybe have a lot of the original writers come back and take over for one final season. After that they could have a 3D IMAX spectacular for its 30th anniversary. Now that’s what I call a yellow dream.

Would you like to see a Simpsons Movie sequel?