When former 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studio) decided back in 1993 to adapt a children’s book by Milan Trenc into a family film that would center on a night watchman at a natural history museum sees his job descend into chaos when exhibits come to life after dark, neither anyone at the studio or a stellar acting cast headed by Ben Stiller realized at the time that Night At The Museum would become one of the most successful family film franchises of this still new century. That cast, along with Stiller, included Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Ricky Gervais, Mickey Rooney, Brad Garrett, Dick Van Dyke, and Rami Malek, among others.
The three films released so far, all led by Stiller, were a box office hits worldwide: Night at the Museum (2006) grossed $574M, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) $413M, and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014) $363. When Disney took over the rights, it expanded the franchise further with a Disney+ animated feature, Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again (2022).
Now, 21 Laps production company (Deadpool & Wolverine, Stranger Things season 5) has revealed that is preparing a new feature reboot that will have a completely new story and a new set of characters, presuming a new set of acting names too. No plot specifics have been revealed so far, only that the producing duo of Shawn Levy and Dan Levine has enlisted Tripper Clancy to write the script.
Looking at what Clancy, a WGA Award winner, has done previously might give us an inkling of what we can expect, of course, unless he decides, along with all involved, to surprise us. Clancy is best known for writing each installment in the Die Hart franchise, starring Kevin Hart, for Roku and Amazon. He has experience with reboots, too, since co-creating a Varsity Blues reboot for Quibi, developing the novel The Art of Fielding with Mike Tollin as a miniseries for Netflix, writing for Pixar, and penning the buddy action comedy Stuber.
What is unclear is whether this new film will be set in the same universe as the previous three films, or if the studio will be hard rebooting the franchise with no ties at all to the original films. Given none of the original stars, including Stiller, are attached, it seems likely this new film will restart the franchise but with the project in early development there is always a chance things could change.
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