Fashion is all about the zeitgeist. You launch one collection and then, before you can say Karl Lagerfeld, winter has become spring and a new collection is the talk of the town.
Luckily, in movies there are sometimes second chances, otherwise Zoolander would have been discarded like a moth-eaten jumper.
“What’s funny is that the movie didn’t do very well,” says Owen Wilson of the 2001 original, in which he starred as Hansel, a younger rival to Ben Stiller’s top model Derek Zoolander. Perhaps this was inevitable – the comedy about fashion models doubling as terrorist assassins was released just two weeks after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
Over time, though, audiences discovered it on DVD and TV, and suddenly Zoolander was being talked of as one of the comedy greats. Six years after its release, The Guardian proclaimed it "the finest film about fashion ever".
Wilson and co-star Ben Stiller noticed that, suddenly, fans of the film were everywhere.
"When I was travelling, there were a lot of people who would come up to me quoting Zoolander," says Wilson. "I said this to Ben and he said he had the same experience."
The characters' signature looks, Blue Steel and Magnum, became as associated with posing as the dance moves seen in the music video for Madonna's Vogue. So, despite the delay in the film finding its audience, it was inevitable that the filmmakers would be asked to create a new collection.
“Over the years, we thought about doing a sequel,” says Stiller, “but we just couldn’t figure out the right story and making it work, with everybody coming together.”
In the end it took 15 years, but figure it out they did. Original stars Will Ferrell, Christine Taylor and Milla Jovovich reprise their roles in the sequel, joined by new additions Penelope Cruz, Kristen Wiig and Benedict Cumberbatch.
"Somehow, Zoolander remained in the consciousness of a certain group of people, so we really wanted to make it for them," says Stiller, who is is also the film's director and co-writer.
One of the problems he had to overcome was working out how at 50 years old, and with Wilson only three years younger, they could still be believably relevant as models in the notoriously fickle fashion world. The solution was to make them dinosaurs. When Wilson received the script, he was delighted with the new spin.
“I always thought that it sounded like a funny idea, even in the basic construct,” he says.
The sequel starts with Zoolander and Hansel no longer friends and living out of the limelight. Then Billy Zane (playing himself) invites them back into the world of fashion with invitations to a show hosted by Alexanya Atoz (Kristen Wiig).
Reunited, they are older – but none the wiser – and instead of being preoccupied with being top models they are now dealing with fatherhood.
The comedy dynamic between Stiller and Wilson is as hot as ever. They first worked together on The Cable Guy in 1996 and have since made more than a dozen films together, including The Royal Tenenbaums and Meet the Parents. It has become one of the great cinematic partnerships.
The original Zoolander also featured a cameo by David Bowie, who died last month.
“I think Ben and I were surprised that he agreed to do the first one,” says Wilson. “No one really knew these characters – he was just a cool, lovely guy. It’s amazing how much life he put into it.”
In the first film, there is a joke about Hansel being inspired by British musician Sting. This joke is developed in the sequel, with Sting making a cameo appearance, after Wilson discovered that the former frontman of The Police was a fan of the movie.
“Not too long after making the first movie, I ran into him,” says Wilson. “He kind of hugged me, and said he got a kick out of the original.
“When Sting was on-set in Rome [while filming the sequel], I remember when we were waiting around between takes, he would sit there playing the guitar and it was beautiful music.”
Judging by the plethora of star cameos – including Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, Susan Sarandon, Kiefer Sutherland, Olivia Munn and a host of big names from the fashion industry – it seems that everyone wanted to be in the sequel.
“It was fun to get people from the fashion world into the movie,” says Stiller. “This time around, since the fashion world was aware of the movie, we were able to have people like Anna Wintour, who was a real partner in getting the film made.
“I think that added another level of legitimacy to the world we were creating.”
It just goes to show – some things never go out of fashion.
• Zoolander 2 is in cinemas on Thursday, February 25
artslife@thenational.ae
