Small Soldiers The Second

Joe Dante's Small Soldiers is a bit wonky but I do love it dearly. Indeed, once the awkward exposition is dealt with, and we're stripped down to the set-pieces and satire, everything does kick up a gear or two and really gets moving. So very underappreciated - just like most other Joe Dante movies.

Now, it looks like a sequel is on the cards. Sadly, like the potential third Gremlins film, Dante hasn't been signed up, and it seems unlikely that he will be. The core concept is the selling point of what will likely go straight to DVD.

The new Small Soldiers script is being written by Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons. They're also developing Master Mind, the first film Ben Stiller is producing at Dreamworks Animation. That one is a kind of post-Incredibles superhero gimmick film in which the supervillain Master Mind kills his goodly nemesis Uberman in the first set-piece and then suffers from depression and a crippling lack of direction.

It could work. It will need a clever script that sidesteps cliche. This revisionist superhero stuff is getting to be a rather crowded subgenre.

Master Mind's directors are to be Cameron Hood and Kyle Jefferson, animators climbing up the Dreamworks ranks. It will, like all other Dreamworks animations from 2009 onwards, be released in 3D.