- Renny Harlin, director of the original Cliffhanger, has concerns about the use of CGI in the upcoming sequel.
- Harlin believes that the success of the original film was due to its realistic stunts and dangerous feel.
- Director Ric Roman Waugh has mentioned using modern technology to take Cliffhanger 2 “to a whole other level.”
Renny Harlin, the director of the original 1993 film Cliffhanger, has shared his thoughts on the upcoming sequel, expressing concerns about potential overuse of CGI. In an interview with ComingSoon.net, Harlin mentioned that he has been attempting to create a Cliffhanger sequel for decades, but worries that the studios would now rely too much on CGI to recreate the intense action sequences from the original film.
According to Harlin, a major part of the original movie’s appeal was the realistic stunts and dangerous atmosphere, crediting the film’s success to this. He said, “We shot at 12,000-foot peaks in the Italian Alps. It was real stuff, like the opening sequence with the girl falling. It was done for real… I hope they don’t try to replace what we did with a lot of CG.”
While Harlin currently has no involvement in the sequel, he claims there is “more story to tell” and hopes that the studios don’t replace practical stunts with digital effects. He said, “It’s so easy for the studios to say now, ‘We’ll do everything blue screen and create everything digitally.’ I hope they don’t do that because it deserves a sequel with the same spirit of the original.”
Cliffhanger 2 is set to be directed by Ric Roman Waugh (Angel Has Fallen), with Sylvester Stallone expected to return as the star. Waugh has previously shared some plot details and mentioned following Stallone’s character Ranger Gabriel “Gabe” Walker and his daughter. However, Waugh’s statement about using modern technology to take the movie to a “whole other level” might worry fans of the original film who share Harlin’s concerns about overuse of CGI.
Harlin’s next projects include directing the action movie The Bricklayer, starring Aaron Eckhart, and the horror reboot The Strangers: Chapter 1.