‘Sharknado 2’ announces cast with Kelly Osbourne, Judd Hirsch

“Sharknado 2” won’t air for our Twitter hashtagging pleasure until July, but production on the SyFy TV movie is set to begin in New York City. And to stoke the anticipation of cheese, the channel has revealed the cast.

Besides returning “Sharknado” alums Ian Ziering and Tara Reid, the sequel will boast Vivica A. Fox and Mark McGrath in major roles and cameos from Kelly Osbourne, Judd Hirsch, Andy Dick and Judah Friedlander.

The sequel, reteaming the original director Anthony C. Ferrante with original screenwriter Thunder Levin, will move the shark-infested tornado action from Los Angeles to New York City.

Fox is expected to play an old classmate of Ziering’s character, Fin, and McGrath will play his brother-in-law.

BEST TV OF 2013 Lloyd | McNamara

Meanwhile, Osbourne, Hirsch, Dick and Friedlander will crop up as assorted New York City-type characters, including Hirsch playing off the popularity of his character from “Taxi” by playing a cab driver.

For those who spent last summer outdoors, the original “Sharknado” aired on SyFy in July and became an overnight media sensation. Though actual ratings for its premiere were a bit lower than the usual SyFy original movie fare, it was the subject of thousands of tweets, many of them from celebrities.

Based on the surprising reaction to an otherwise run-of-the-mill creature feature, SyFy re-aired “Sharknado” to an even larger audience of 1.89 million viewers. The film was also released in 200 theaters for a one-night-only midnight screening.

It remains to be seen if the original “Sharknado” was lightning in a bottle or the beginning of America’s unquenchable thirst for sharks flying through the air in tornado-like formations, but the truth will discovered this July.

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