Though Charlie Day and Jennifer Aniston‘s characters were often at odds in the Horrible Bosses films, they’re both aligned in wanting a third film in the R-rated comedy franchise.
After Aniston recently revealed that she wants to revisit the project, the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia actor told The Hollywood Reporter that he, too, “absolutely would be up for another” Horrible Bosses‘ film.
In addition, speaking to THR at a recent New York screening of his latest movie, Honey Don’t!, now in theaters, Day said that he “had some conversations about it with some people involved in front and behind the camera,” suggesting that his and Aniston’s desire to return to the project might be more than idle speculation.
He added, “We’ll see — hopefully there’s an appetite at the studio.”
Day referenced the new Naked Gun film in expressing his support for theatrical comedies.
“I just saw The Naked Gun, and it was so fun to be in a theater with a comedy with a capital ‘c.’”
“I’d love to do a third one,” he said of the Horrible Bosses series. “Hopefully, we get to do it.”
In June, Aniston told People that Horrible Bosses is the project she’d be most interested in revisiting.
“Jason Bateman and I were talking about that, and Charlie Day has been talking about it a lot too,” Aniston said of the franchise. “So that’s something that we think would be super fun.”
She added, “The characters are hilarious, and we need comedy. I personally think comedy is a necessity. That’s one that we would have a really fun time, I think, going back to, seeing where those crazy cats are today.”
Aniston also looked back lovingly on the franchise in a recent video interview with Vanity Fair for its “Rewatch” series, recalling how she fought for her character’s brunette locks.
“I wanted [my character] to look different. The argument from the studio, and I am sorry to call you out, was that, ‘We’re just afraid it won’t look like you.’ And I said, ‘That’s kind of the point!’ I still think it might look a little bit like me. But I’m glad I fought for it and stuck to my guns.”
The two films, released in 2011 and 2014, Aniston said, helped her shed her “girl next door” image.
“I was always, sort of, seen as a girl next door, you know, the ingenue,” she said. “It was really fun to play somebody like this because it’s so far away from anything that I am. And I think that’s what the director liked — this is so not what you would expect from this gal. That was the fun of it. I think that’s what made it more creatively exciting for me, obviously.”
The first Horrible Bosses film, released over the summer in 2011, was directed by Seth Gordon from a script by Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, and in addition to Aniston, Day and Bateman, starred Jason Sudeikis, Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx. The film follows three friends (Day, Bateman and Sudeikis) who scheme to murder their awful bosses. The original grossed nearly $210 million worldwide on a $35 million budget.
The 2014 sequel, directed by Sean Anders from a script by Anders, John Morris, Goldstein and Daley, saw most of the original stars return and added Chris Pine and Christoph Waltz. But that movie, released over the Thanksgiving corridor in 2014, didn’t perform as well at the box office, grossing nearly $108 million worldwide from a $42 million budget.
Speaking about the follow-up on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast in 2015, Bateman said it was “garbage, as far as box office goes,” and he suggested that a sequel might not have been necessary, though he said he loves both films.
“A lot of people saw the first one, but there are plenty of films that made a lot of money where no one is interested in seeing another one,” Bateman said. “People just weren’t interested in seeing another one. ‘We saw the first one, we had fun, and I don’t need to go see a second one.’”
