New Line Cinema and Walden media have attached The Conjuring scribes Carey and Chad Hayes to their Jules Verne-fueled Journey to the Center of the Earth franchise. Josh Hutcherson, who starred in the original film and its first sequel, Journey 2 the Mysterious Island, will re-team with the sequel’s headliner Dwayne Johnson for an additional two sequels, which they are now looking at potentially filming back to back.
Word of a third film first broke in 2012, following the impressive box office receipts of Mysterious Island, which itself teased that another film would likely be based on Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon and/or that book’s sequel, Around the Moon. It is noted in the trade’s story, however, that a new direction is being eyed for the franchise, so the Moon may no longer be the planned destination.
The Hayes brothers recently teamed with both Johnson and Mysterious Island helmer Brad Peyton for the upcoming San Andreas. That film also stars Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Archie Panjabi, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Art Parkinson, Ioan Gruffudd and Kylie Minogue and is set for release on June 5, 2015.
