Valentine's Day hasn't even opened yet, but let's face it, we all know it will be a rom-com behemoth that will crush us under the weight of its starpower. So why wait for something like reviews or box office receipts to greenlight a sequel? Variety is reporting that New Line has already greenlit New Year's Eve, a "spinoff" of Valentine's Day that will also be directed by Garry Marshall.

You alrady know where this is going-- set in a major city (this time New York City) on a major holiday (this time New Year's Eve), a bunch of different attractive and mostly white people cope with the meaning of life and love. Apparently some characters from Valentine's Day are scheduled to return-- either they'll be the fan favorites from the first movie, or the actors desperate enough to cash the next paycheck.

We're living in a post-Crash America, by the way, which means that sprawling stories about a bunch of people who only connect tangentially are still the way of the future. I actually don't mind romantic comedies sticking to this formula, since it's crowd-pleasing and simple, the way rom-coms ought to be. But there's just something that sticks in my craw about a sequel to a movie that virtually no one has seen yet. Is this just Hollywood at last turning into the nanny state we always knew they wanted to be?