MovieChat Forums > The Odd Couple II (1998) Discussion > Whatever Happened to 'Odd Couple 3' ???

Whatever Happened to 'Odd Couple 3' ???

posted 16 years ago by msdemos
3 replies | jump to latest

Does anybody know whatever happened to the plans for making Odd Couple 3?

I just watched Jack Lemmon's appearance on The Charlie Rose Show from early 1998 (http://www.charlierose.com/shows/1998/02/09/1/an-hour-with-actor-jack- lemmon), and during the interview he mentions the making of Odd Couple 2, which apparently was just about to be released, and then goes on to say that Neil Simon already had Odd Couple 3 completed, and that plans were well underway for it's production.

Does anyone know why it never got made?

If I had to guess, I'd say it may (possibly) have had something to do with Lemmon's or Matthau's health (since both were close to the end of their lives, and not in the best of health), or because (more likely) Odd Couple 2 pretty much "tanked" upon it's release (earning less than $19 million dollars).

Anyone know for sure?

[–] RIPLucas 16 years ago

well, they looked pretty healthy in Odd Couple II.

However, since Jack died from his Cancer in 2001, once can assume he'd probably been ill for at least a year....probably longer. So he wasn't in the best of conditions to act in a movie.

I'm not sure of Walter's heart attack was sudden or not, but if not, he probably wasn't well for a while beforehand.

[–] Anorensic 10 years ago

Lemmon looked good in OC2 but Walter was clearly getting on in age, he passed away just 2 years after this movie. I didn't know Lemmon died due to cancer, he looked healthy here, guess that's how life is, you are watching and laughing with them one year, next year they are gone..

[–] dab6 10 years ago

Lemmon was diagnosed with colon cancer two years before his death, during which he kept it quiet and still worked on films. He was fighting it, but it spread to his bladder.

Matthau n the other hand had been in poor health for twenty years and almost died multiple times. It's why he had to drop out of My Fellow Americans and, which was conceived as a Lemmon-Matthau vehicle and be replaced by James Garner. He had cancer all over his body when that last heart attack knocked him out. My guess is that he was ruled too ill for the project before Lemmon was diagnosed.