I'm not going to go ape shit over this story the way some are, simply because Warner Bros. has been so respectful of Casablanca for decades that there's little reason to think they'll screw with it now. Clearly, the studio sees the 1942 classic as the crown jewel that it is, and have re-released it enough times that younger audiences have been able to find it and enjoy it. But talk of a sequel or remake has been around forever, and now we could be on the verge of seeing it happen.
According to the New York Post, the studio may consider a sequel from original scribe Howard Kochman, which he penned in the 1980s with hopes of bringing back Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman as Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund. Given the novel title of Return to Casablanca, the story would be set in 1961 and follow Rick and Ilsa's son, Richard. Check out a brief thorough synopsis below....
After leaving Casablanca for America, Ilsa learned she was pregnant. She gave birth to a boy who grew up in America. The real father of the boy, it turns out, was not Laszlo but Rick.
He was conceived the night Ilsa came to Rick’s place to plead for the Letters of Transit . . . The secret was not kept from Laszlo, but being the kind of man he was and owing so much to Rick, he adopted the child and treated him as his own son.
The boy was named Richard, and he grew up to be a handsome, tough-tender young man reminiscent of his father. He had been told the truth about his origin and has a deep desire to find his real father, or at least more about him, since Rick’s heroic at actions in Casablanca have become legendary.’
Richard finds himself very much a stranger in the Arab world, a world now under Arab rule since the expulsion of the Germans and Vichy French who occupied Casablanca during the war.
....now, in 1961, a citizens movement led by an Arab woman who calls herself Joan is leading “guerrilla warfare’’ to track down “Nazi-led outlaws.’’ Richard eventually discovers his father’s fate.
A sequel titled Brazzaville was started back in 1943 with a script by Frederic Stephani, but it didn't get very far. Rick appeared on television a couple of times in what are considered to be prequels. One was in Warner Bros. Presents and lasted 10 episodes from 1955-1956 starring Charles McGraw. The other was very briefly in 1983 with David Soul as Rick. .
Look, this is probably going to happen some day, so why not now? Warner Bros. has NOT green lit anything yet, and it sounds like they want a big time director and star to come aboard before they'll really take it seriously. This being Casablanca's 70th anniversary, there really isn't any time like the present.
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