Nicole Kidman’s iconic, meme-worth ad for AMC Theatres is getting a sequel. According to Vanity Fair, a follow up to the viral ad is already in progress, as confirmed by Billy Ray, the screenwriter behind the original ad that took the internet by storm. Ray told the outlet that he was asked by AMC a month ago to write a follow up. Ray, who also wrote films such as Flightplan, The Hunger Games, Captain Phillips, and Richard Jewell, also confirmed that the ad is already written.
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“I got a text from the chairman of AMC about a month ago asking me if I would write the next one, and of course the answer to that is yes,” Ray said. “It’s already written.”
“I’m very, very excited about it,” Ray added, though he didn’t reveal any details about what this second ad might entail.
“All I can tell you about it is we are not dumb enough to fly in the face of the one we’ve already done and try to top it,” Ray said. “So, it’s a very, very different approach that is a little bit of a wink to the one we’ve already done.”
AMC Theatres initially made a splash with their “Welcome Back” campaign for audiences as movie theaters began to open up in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Kidman’s initial ad was a major part of that. The brief ad featured the actress inside an AMC delivering a monologue about the magic of viewing movies in a theater, including the line “somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this”. The ad was surprisingly popular and even resulted in a variety of memes and parodies shared across the internet. Earlier this month, it was announced that the campaign was so effective that the theater company had signed Kidman on as spokesperson for another full year.
As for the sequel ad, Ray confirmed to Vanity Fair that the follow up will also feature Kidman. Ray also explained how it was Kidman who asked him to write the first ad.
“When Nicole first asked me to do it, I was just doing it as a favor,” Ray said. “I said I would do it for free just because I’m a fan and a friend of hers. My agent said, ‘No, that’s not what’s happening here. You need to be paid for this.’ And it turns out my agent was right because it’s had real value.”
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