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'Burn Notice's Jeffrey Donovan is an undead gunslinger in 'R.I.P.D.' prequel 'Rise of the Damned'
It's Men in Black meets Ghostbusters in the long-awaited prequel.
All the way back in the pre-Deadpool era of 2013, Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges teamed up as a pair of undead cops tasked with hunting down wayward souls in director Robert Schwentke's R.I.P.D. Based on the Rest in Peace Department comics published by Dark Horse, the Men in Black-meets-Ghostbusters project tanked at the box office, despite a fun and engaging premise.
But just like the officers of the titular postmortem law enforcement agency, the property is getting a second chance with a sequel (though it's technically a prequel) that explores the origins of Old West gunslinger, Sheriff Roy Pulsipher (originally portrayed by Bridges on the big screen).
Arriving on Netflix and home video next month, R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned stars Burn Notice alum Jeffrey Donovan as Pulsipher, who gets recruited to fight the forces of evil after he's picked off by an outlaw just before his daughter's wedding. Hoping to revisit his daughter one last time, the rugged sheriff returns to the mortal plane with a mysterious swordswoman, Jeanne (Penelope Mitchell), at his side, ready to battle paranormal threats on the American frontier.
Check out the teaser trailer below:
Paul Leyden (Cleaners) directed the movie, working off a screenplay co-written alongside Andrew Klein (MacGyver). "Just in time for awards season…!" Leyden joked on Instagram. "Okay, maybe not, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun!" Jake Choi (Single Parents), Kerry Knuppe (Pachinko), Evlyne Oyedokun, Richard Brake (Barbarian), and Rachel Adedeji (Hollyoaks) round out the cast.
R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned arrives on DVD, Blu-Ray, Digital, and Netflix on Tuesday, Nov. 15. Click here for an extended 8-minute preview. The 2013 adaptation is currently available on HBO Max.
"There’s something about this movie that’s very early-to-mid ’80s in tone," Phil Hay, who co-wrote the original film with Matt Manfredi, remarked during an interview with Creative Screenwriting. "A lot of superhero movies are extremely serious and portentous and everything is extremely dire and big, and in our movie we wanted to make a more comic Ghostbusters-like tone to it, where the characters are serious about their predicament, but we don’t shy away from the comedic craziness and whimsy of their situations."
Looking for more supernatural hijinks in the meantime? The 2007 Ghost Rider flick, which also centers around a spectral bounty hunter, is now streaming on Peacock.
