Plane co-star Mike Colter has said that its sequel, named Ship, was two weeks away from filming when Gerard Butler backed out, sinking the project. Ship, the long-billed sequel to the 2023 action thriller Plane, has been sunk. That’s according to returning co-star Mike Colter, who’s made the rather startling claim that the sequel fell ... Plane 2 | The sequel, Ship, was capsized by Gerard Butler just before filming, co-star says
Plane co-star Mike Colter has said that its sequel, named Ship, was two weeks away from filming when Gerard Butler backed out, sinking the project.
Ship, the long-billed sequel to the 2023 action thriller Plane, has been sunk. That’s according to returning co-star Mike Colter, who’s made the rather startling claim that the sequel fell apart because Gerard Butler pulled out a mere two weeks from filming.
Announced not long after Plane's release three years ago, Ship would again have starred Colter as Louis Gaspare, Butler’s sidekick in the original. Butler was still involved, but not in front of the camera: instead, he was to serve as producer on the sequel.
Speaking to The Direct at a fan expo in Vancouver, Colter said that Ship was on the eve of production when “last-minute, Gerard decided he didn’t want to go forward with it and there wasn’t a lot of discussion about it… two weeks out, he pulled out and we were sort of trying to figure out what to do.”
Work on the film had already been delayed by the Hollywood strikes of 2023, and the last time Colter talked about Ship – in March last year – he suggested that the action sequel was in drydock. “Obviously Gerard and his company [G-BASE] produce that, they own the rights to it,” he said. “I’d love to do the sequel, but it’s in their ball park right now. It’s another thing to pray for.”
Made for an economical $10m, Plane saw Butler’s robust airline pilot Brodie Torrance make an emergency landing on a remote island in the South Pacific. That island turns out to be vaguely Die Hard-themed: full of terrorists, hostages and piles of artillery. It’s all tremendously good fun. Let’s face it – any film that contains a company called Trailblazer Airlines is at least worth a look.
Unfortunately, it sounds as though Plane will remain a singular entry in Butler’s body of cinematic achievements. Apocalyptic sequel Greenland 2: Migration came out this year; action thriller Empire City is on the way, as is a sports comedy drama, All-Star Weekend, which is the directorial debut of star Jamie Foxx.
