Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004)

In his previous mission, Cody Banks (Frankie Muniz) went undercover as a high school student to get close to fellow student Natalie Connors (Hilary Duff) – and filmgoing youngsters went crazy for Cody and his comic adventures. Kids young and old had a great time watching Cody outsmart the bad guys, and they really responded to Cody’s main predicament: to have to act like a typical teenager while saving the world and keeping his family from finding out he’s a spy. Released on March 14, 2003, audiences showed their approval by making Agent Cody Banks a hit, but the filmmakers, stars, and MGM weren’t surprised by the film’s success – with positive test audience response and early buzz on the film, a sequel was already in the works before the first Cody was even released.

Producer Dylan Sellers feels it’s the premise behind Agent Cody Banks that helped make it such a success. “I think the fantasy of being a kid secret agent is a pretty compelling idea for kids,” says Sellers. “It’s right up there with being a princess or race car driver or something – it’s exciting, unusual, and very empowering. Cody gets to do things most of us would only dream of, which is made all the more exhilarating by the fact he’s a teenager.”

Producer David Nicksay agrees, but he feels kids also responded with such enthusiasm because, even though he’s racing cars and saving the world, Cody’s a lot like them. “Cody is an all-American, every day kid,” he says. “Everybody can understand where he’s coming from. He has homework, he has school problems, he has family issues – but he’s actually more capable than most adults. That’s what makes him spectacular.”

In putting together a sequel, the filmmakers quickly decided they wanted to give Cody new territory to explore. Not only did Cody need a fresh villain to defeat, but by putting him in a foreign environment the filmmakers would be able to up the stakes and give Cody a different set of obstacles to overcome. London provided the perfect backdrop. With Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, old English mansions, the London Eye, and a variety of other locations in the background, Cody and his cohorts had a new environment to explore. With its age-old majesty and history, grand old England becomes another character in the film.

The filmmakers transplanted the action across the ocean, but they also wanted to bend the film’s genre a bit. The first film explored the spy scenario, with plenty of action and James Bond-esque intrigue. But in listening to audience response, the filmmakers discovered that people also really enjoyed the comedic aspects of the journey. In formulating the sequel, the filmmakers wanted to keep the action while making comedy an even bigger part of the film.

“What will make Agent Cody Banks: Destination London as appealing, if not more appealing than the first one, is that it’s really funny,” says Sellers. “The first one obviously did very well or we wouldn’t be making a second. But there was a lot of emphasis on visual action, and in some areas I think we could have focused more on comedy. We were very intent on emphasizing comedy in Destination London. There’s still a lot of action and a lot of gadgets and a lot of very cool stuff, but there’s much, much more comedy.”

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