Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie 2 has been delayed due to Brexit, according to the show’s creator, Brendan O’Carroll.
O’Carroll, who writes and stars as Agnes “Mammy” Brown, told the Sun that the sequel’s funding has become insecure thanks to the volatile post-Brexit market. “We were planning to do it this year, but the numbers weren’t right,” said O’Carroll. “The Brexit drop in sterling makes it a lot more expensive for the studio than it would have been previously.”
O’Carroll plans to make the film once the pound stabilises. “The plot and outline are there and ready to go,” he said. “We know what’s going to happen and how we’re going to do it.”
It is thought the vote to leave the European Union will have a wide-ranging impact on the British film industry, with co-productions between the UK and European partners complicated and funding – including a €130m (£105m) cash injection from the EU’s media programme – reduced.
The first Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie film was a hit at the British box office, with the adaptation of the hit BBC1 sitcom pulling in £4.3m in its opening weekend, defying analyst’s expectations. It went on to take £28m.
O’Carroll had previously suggested the film would be the first of a trilogy, one of which would put the focus on a new character, Mr Wang. Wang, a white man who thinks he’s Chinese, is also played by O’Carroll. The part was originally written for Burt Kwouk, who died earlier this year.
Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie received damning reviews from critics and has a 7% score from reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes. The Guardian’s Mike McCahill called the film “a flatly indifferent cash-in”.
