Shawn Levy Talks Night At The Museum

2 weeks ago 06th Nov 10:16

Night at The Museum was a massive box office success when it was released back in 2006. And this summer saw Ben Stiller and co all return under the watchful gaze of filmmaker Shawn Levy.

And more success followed for Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian as it took over $411 million at the global box office.

I caught up with Shawn as he promoted the DVD to talk about the success of the franchise, what made him return for a second movie and if there would be more.

- The second Night At The Museum movie is about to be released on DVD here in the UK so for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie yet can you tell me a little bit about it?

The sequel has our characters travelling to the Smithsonian in Washington DC, whereas the first movie was a lot of spectacle and wonder this movie retains that scale but adds more characters, a love story and a more complex narrative. So I think the sequel is loyal to fans of the first but it definitely goes to a new place.

- The story was all nicely tied up at the end of the first film so what made you want to come back to these characters?

Ben Stiller and I were astounded by the goodwill that we received from audiences there’s a love for this franchise that really blew us away and once we realised how much people felt affection toward Ben’s character and these museum characters, and the wish fulfillment of this premise, it felt worth exploring what the next adventure would be.

- So what challenges did you face doing a sequel?

I think that the challenge with any sequel is making it more than simply bigger and louder which is why we added an antagonist in the brilliant Hank Azaria and a romantic comedy narrative via Amy Adams and her portrayal of Amelia Earhart. So hopefully this movie isn’t just bigger and cooler but it’s also got more layers and more to enjoy.

 - Well that leads me into my next question really a new movie means new characters so why Amelia Earhart and Kahmunrah in particular?

I think Kahmunrah was created by the writers as this selfish pharaoh who was on one hand scary and a legitimate threat but also so absurd and therefore funny, so he struck us a great engine for comedy.

As far as Amelia Earhart goes, as the father of there daughters, I saw the impact of the first movie and the way that it sparked an interest in history amongst our young audience so the idea of  sparking interest in this formidable female historical character was very appealing.

Having daughters of my own I could see how they were drawn to Sacagawea and wanting to learn all about Sacagawea after the first film and I expected for Amelia Earhart.

- Ben Stiller’s Larry remains the central character so how has his character developed and moved on over the course of the two movies?

Well in the first movie this was character who was a regular guy dealing with extraordinary circumstances the second movie finds Larry almost numb to the wonder of the museum and successful in a new venture as a gadget inventor and salesman.