Cliffhanger Director Shares His Hopes for Announced Sequel

Sylvester Stallone's adrenaline-fueled adventure Cliffhanger is set to get a sequel 30 years after its original release, and while original director Renny Harlin isn't currently connected to the project, he did share his hopes for the follow-up film, namely that he encourages the filmmakers to embrace as many practical effects as possible, given the thrilling views of death-defying stunts delivered in the 1993 movie. Harlin also admitted how he had personally been hoping that the movie could get another installment, as it seemed obvious that there was a lot of potential to return to that world. The new film is set to be directed by Jean-Francois Richet (Plane, 2005's Assault on Precinct 13) from a script by Mark Bianculli (The Good Neighbor, Hunters), with Stallone reportedly returning.

"To be honest, I've tried for decades. I always felt the movie was hugely successful, and it was crazy that there wasn't a sequel. There was more story to tell. Now, of course, it's a long time later, so I have no idea what kind of a story they are planning to tell or what Sly's role in it is. But I wish them the best of luck," Harlin shared with Coming Soon. "I hope they don't try to replace what we did with a lot of CG. Because I think the audience will be able to tell that we did everything for real. We shot at 12,000-foot peaks in the Italian Alps. It was real stuff, like the opening sequence with the girl falling. It was done for real. That was at 8,000 feet, that wire."

He added, "It's so easy for the studios to say now, 'We'll do everything blue screen and create everything digitally.' I hope they don't do that because it deserves a sequel with the same spirit of the original."

Cliffhanger came at a time when the country was getting more invested and excited by the concept of extreme sports, so as if the idea of scaling mountains wasn't thrilling enough, adding an action-inspired element of a crime story elevated the experience to new heights. While Stallone has already reprised iconic roles with years-later sequels to Rocky and First Blood, the rumored plot details of the upcoming movie would see Stallone's character take a slight backseat in the experience as his daughter would instead take the focus.

Stay tuned for updates on the Cliffhanger sequel.

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