In 1992 the prevailing sports philosophy was that white (read: caucasian) men were incapable of “jumping.” More specifically, it was believed by the general public that they couldn’t jump high enough to successfully “dunk” a basketball. They made a whole movie about this phenomenon called, appropriately enough, White Men Can’t Jump, which unexpectedly shot then lesser-known actors Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson into the limelight.
22 years later, we have no idea if this theory still stands – this isn’t the CraveOnline Sports Channel after all – but apparently Wesley Snipes thinks there’s still enough life left in the idea to green light a sequel.
“Come on, Woody! Let’s do it,” Wesley Snipes told Total Film at the premiere of X-Men: Days of Future Past. “You know, actually they’ve been trying to get us to do something like that for a while, and we just have to figure out the script now. But me and Woody will team up again.”
Watching the video of Wesley Snipes making these remarks indicates that the actor was speaking in good fun, and not necessarily desparate to get White Men Can’t Jump 2 off the ground, but it might be a smart move for Snipes’ career. Lots of leading men whose stars have fallen have boosted their careers lately by revisiting old glories (Sylvester Stallone has even made it his new calling card with Rocky Balboa, Rambo and the Expendables movies), but although Snipes – who has been relegated to straight-to-video fare lately – could probably use the leg up, “True Detective” star Woody Harrelson is doing just fine without sequelizing his old successes, so who knows if he’d even be interested?
Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson teamed up again already in the 1995 heist thriller Money Train, a less successful and somewhat underappreciated film that capitalized on their natural chemistry. Whether they team up for White Men Can’t Jump 2 or just another film that happens to place them on screen together, we’d be interested in checking it out. Would you?
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
