5 days ago
'Air Bud Returns' in meta franchise revival
July 24 (UPI) -- Cineverse announced Thursday that it will release Air Bud Returns in theaters. The film is planned for next summer.
The original Air Bud opened in 1997 and featured a golden retriever who could play basketball. Several sequels followed, in which Air Bud tried sports from American football to volleyball. It also inspired a series of Air Buddies films about puppies.
Air Bud Returns will mark the sixth film in the main series. The poster shows Air Bud returning to his basketball roots with a paw over a basketball.
Cineverse collaborates with Air Bud Entertainment on the film and hopes Returns will be the first of a new series of films.
ABE founder Robert Vince will write and direct. He produced the Air Bud films, and wrote and directed 10 of them. His hockey chimpanzee franchise, Most Valuable Primate, only made it to two films.
Disney distributed the previous Air Bud movies.
In Air Bud Returns, a 12-year-old discovers the VHS tapes of the earlier movies in his late father's childhood home. The boy names his golden retriever Buddy after the films.
This approach goes back to films like Gremlins 2, in which gremlins attack Leonard Maltin for criticizing Gremlins 1, and Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, in which characters respond to the hype of The Blair Witch Project. This year's Matlock revival has Kathy Bates playing a character named after the Andy Griffith series.
The human cast of Air Bud Returns has not been announced.
