Hollywood bosses are clearly ignoring recent reports that the poorer-than-expected performance of Ocean’s Thirteen at the US box office is because of a case of sequelitis among originality-deprived moviegoers.

Instead, with fingers plugged firmly into ears, and ignoring the cynicism of constantly rebooted franchises, producers are ploughing ahead with yet another slew of sequels over the next 12 months, hoping that the act of sticking a number at the end of the title will guarantee solid financial returns.

Thus a sequel to the underperforming Superman Returns (2006), directed by Bryan Singer, is in the works, as is one to the abysmal Steve Martin vehicle The Pink Panther (itself the sixth part in the original franchise).

Plus Samuel L. Jackson has recently announced that work has begun on a sequel to his 1996 action flick The Long Kiss Goodnight. Does the original really warrant a sequel? Will anyone care?

Perhaps sensing an increasing hostility to the preponderance of sequels in the release schedules, Michael Bostick, the producer of this summer’s Bruce Almighty sequel Evan Almighty, recently announced that he didn’t want the movie to be referred to as a sequel any more.

“We prefer to call it the next instalment in the Almighty series,” he said. Well, that’s a relief then.

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