Hollywood demands encore from `Full Monty'

BRITAIN'S most successful film, The Full Monty, is to get a sequel because the money to be made from one is too good to turn down, it was confirmed yesterday.

The original cast, who made little money from the new film, will be reunited for the follow-up, but are scheduled to keep their clothes on this time.

Scriptwriter Simon Beaufoy's agent, Rod Hall, confirmed that his client was in negotiation for the project and said: "I know that it will go ahead."

The film's makers, Twentieth Century Fox, are keen to repeat the success of the male stripping movie set in Sheffield, which cost only pounds 2m to make but is estimated to have taken in the region of pounds 150m worldwide.

Mr Hall said yesterday that the sums involved make the follow-up a certainty.

"They say that a sequel cannot achieve less than 40 per cent of the success of the last film - it's a statistical fact. So under the circumstances where you've got a film that has taken $225m [pounds 140m] at the box office, it will happen in one way or another."

"The only question is whether Simon writes it or not, but he doesn't want to relinquish his babies to anybody else."

Mr Hall said that negotiations were taking place in California.

With the exception of the James Bond series and the Carry On movies, major British films rarely make enough money to get a sequel.

A Fish Called Wanda's sequel last year, Fierce Creatures, was a disappointment. Four Weddings and a Funeral will have a sequel, Notting Hill, released this year

Mr Beaufoy, who was nominated for an Oscar for The Full Monty script, has already confirmed that he does not want a sequel to be "another stripper movie".

Actor Tom Wilkinson, who played Gerald, confirmed yesterday that the negotiations were taking place. He said: "The only proviso is that we get another great script that's true to the characters everyone's come to love."

The film will be a boon for most of the actors who, apart from star Robert Carlyle, received a fee of less than pounds 15,000 for their work, despite the movie's phenomenal success.

The Full Monty team were said to have discussed the sequel plan with Fox bosses in Hollywood at the Oscars last week.