BY JOE REID |

Movie Characters We Want to See Again After Nine Years

With Riddick making his return to movie screens after a nine-year hiatus, we got to thinking about other characters that deserve another shot at the big screen.

Movie Characters We Want to See Again After Nine Years

This weekend, Vin Diesel will once again don his night goggles to play Riddick, in Riddick, a sequel to The Chronicles of Riddick (and to Pitch Black before that). The Chronicles of Riddick hit theaters (and promptly bombed) in June of 2004, and it’s really only now that the Fast and Furious franchise has seen such late-blooming success that Diesel is being given another chance at getting Riddick right.

Interestingly, 2004 movies are proving quite revivable in 2013. Before Midnight picked up where Before Sunset left off (plus a couple kids and some simmering resentments), and that’s one of the best-reviewed movies of the year. Later this fall, we’ll get the Channel 4 News Team back together again in Anchorman 2. Notorious stinker Van Helsing is in the works for a re-boot (though surely without Hugh Jackman, probably for the best for all involved). And at the rate Pixar is going, who would bet against seeing The Incredibles back on a movie screen soon? Here we offer some humble suggestions for five other nine-years-dormant movie characters to bring back and revisit. There are stories to be told here!

Regina George, Mean Girls
We all saw how Regina became a slightly more humane teen queen at the end of Mean Girls. That corrective halo was not only to help her neck heal after that bus accident, it also represented a change of attitude. So what happens to the queen bee who grows a conscience, graduates high school, then college, and is suddenly a part of a world where high-school bullies are anything but revered? Maybe we’re looking at a situation akin to Charlize Theron in Young Adult? There are worse fates. One thing we can say is that Rachel McAdams was having a whole lot of fun revisiting her old “life-ruiner” persona in Brian DePalma’s Passion, so maybe the time really is right.

Beatrix Kiddo, Kill Bill, Volume 2
Almost immediately after his two-part revenge epic wrapped, Quentin Tarantino was already making noise about some day revisiting the story, perhaps with Uma Thurman’s Kiddo having to face down the vengeance sought by the daughter of Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox). Now that Tarantino seems to be able to make new movies without incredibly long hiatuses, maybe we’ll get to this after all.

Jane Jones, Closer
Okay, so maybe it would take away something from the brilliant ending of Mike Nichols’s Closer to track down Jane back in the States. That shot of her disappearing into the same anonymous crowd she’d emerged from in the beginning might be too good to sully. But what becomes of the emotionally unavailable after another decade has nearly passed? Is she still ending up with men who only like the fantasy of her? Don’t we need something great to lure Natalie Portman out of her hiatus?

Bernard and Vivian Jaffe, I Heart Huckabees
It was nice seeing Albert (Jason Schwartzman) and Tommy (Mark Wahlberg) (and Naomi Watts’ and Jude Law’s Dawn and Brad, come to think of it) arrive at a point at the end of Huckabees where they were able to better navigate the existential worries in their lives. But where did Bernard and Vivian (Dustin Hoffman and Vivan Jaffe) go from there? Further cases? A continued semi-truce with Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert)? Maybe the three of them could take on the case of a hot-headed film director whose escalating success still can’t shake his old reputation? You know, for example.

Steve Zissou, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Wes Anderson’s most polarizing film would naturally be the most interesting to revisit, and certainly Bill Murray as nautical adventurer Steve Zissou would be a welcome performance to have back on the big screen. Perhaps he’s working on some kind of tribute to his son, Ned? Lord knows there’s always some sea creature worthy of Steve’s obsessions. And think of all the Portuguese versions of David Bowie songs we didn’t get to hear!

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