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Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian Updates From Ben Stiller

by Alex Billington
August 4, 2008
Source: Film School Rejects

While I personally disliked Night at the Museum, I can't hide from the fact that millions of people did love it, especially considering it went on to make $250 million back in December of 2006. If you didn't know, Fox is already in production on a sequel, titled Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian, and Ben Stiller recently finished filming in Washington DC. Robert over at Film School Rejects caught up with Stiller at the press junket for Tropic Thunder and got some updates from him about what we can expect. Despite my lack of interest in the original, the expanded scope of this sequel has actually captured my attention. In Night at the Museum 2, Stiller returns as Security Guard Larry Daley, but this time he's transferred to the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. and encounters much "bigger and better" troubles.

In addition to Ben Stiller, most of the original cast is also returning, including Steve Coogan (Octavius), Owen Wilson (Jedediah), Robin Williams (Theodore Roosevelt), Dick Van Dyke (Cecil) and Ricky Gervais (Dr. McPhee). The reason why the scope excites me is that the Smithsonian has so many wonderful artifacts and exhibits that there is so much that could potentially come to life and mess with Stiller, not just an annoying selection of critters from the first movie. Stiller expands upon this with an enthusiastic update:

"We have a much broader palette, because it takes place at the Smithsonian, so there's a bunch of different museums we get in and out of like the Air and Space Museum and the art galleries, we go into paintings and stuff. And then there's just this incredible ensemble cast ... we also have new people like Christopher Guest, and Hank Azaria, Amy Adams. So it's really been fun because it's a lot less lonely than the first one."

According to IMDb, Christopher Guest will play Ivan the Terrible, Hank Azaria will play Kah Mun Rah, Amy Adams will play Amelia Earhart (wait, isn't that Hilary Swank's job?), and even Bill Hader will join as General George Custer. Stiller also tells FSR that they'll be using more CGI this time around to in order to achieve goals like "going in and out of paintings and photographs and having statues like The Thinker and The Lincoln Memorial come to life." If that list of new additions to Night at the Museum 2 doesn't leave you excited, then I don't know what else we can mention to cause you to keep your eye on this sequel. I'm still not sure if it will be better than the original, but for now we'll hope for the best.

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Dave V.

My kids love this movie! And at a time people are taking movies too seriously, it was very entertaining! Ben does his usual Stiller act, which is cool when it's not overdne. l laughed my ass off with Octavius and Jedd( Owen Wilson is cool). And it seems like this movie will have alot more things to interact with the characters than the first, so I will deffinatly be waiting to see it along with my kids.
jman571

If this kind of thing is getting kids interested again in going to see museums, then it's a great idea for a sequel. I used to love going to see the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) when I was a kid, and now with the new renovations they did, I should probably go see it again.
http://movieguyreviews4u.blogspot.com Ryan

I hated the first one but for engaging younger kids into education values, it is nice to see a film like that.
http://budong.ka-blogs.com budong

the first episode was good i expect its more funnier ..
Bryan

I loved how the original film ended. I personally don't think they should make a sequel. But if Robin Williams returns as Teddy Roosevelt, it can't be all bad. But with his character only coming to life at night somewhere in Brooklyn, that doesn't seem likely. I will want to watch the sequel, but if I don't like it, I'll just pretend that it was never made and the story ended where the first film did, or hope that they will wrap it up better with a third.
Dom

Looking good.
Henry

I have to admit that this film is a guilty pleasure-- and my 3-year thinks the talking Easter Island statue is a hoot. Because my kids have watched this to the tune of 14 or 16 times-- HBO runs it ad naseum-- it's actually been something of a teaching opportunity. My 7-year old and I had a discussion about who Lewis & Clark were, how Sakagewa helped them, and about who the Huns were. Anytime you can talk to kids about history- regardless of what inspired the discussion-- it can't be all bad. Looking forward to part 2.