Asked about the prospect of a third "Hangover" film last week, star Ed Helms seemed to temper expectations. "It's not official, but I'm hopeful that happens," he told Vulture. "It's certainly been talked about a lot. It's just not a greenlit project at this point." About that: Warner Bros. has scheduled "The Hangover 3" for release on May 24, 2013. Greenlights are so 2011.

Warner Bros. has been angling to make the film a priority since "The Hangover Part II" earned $581 million worldwide after its release in 2010. Of course, whether the third film in the series would be as profitable as the second remains to be seen; the cast reportedly wants $15 million in salary to return.

After tackling Las Vegas (in the superior first film) and Thailand (in the not superior second film), the Wolf Pack could stick to Los Angeles for part three. Helms, Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis are all signed on.

"We’re going to surprise a lot of people with the final chapter we have planned," director Todd Phillips said in a statement. "It will be a fitting conclusion to our three-part opera of mayhem, despair and bad decisions.”

Universal currently has "Fast Six" -- the sequel to the equally high-grossing "Fast Five" -- scheduled for Memorial Day 2013 as well, setting up quite the potential box-office battle between the two popular franchises.

[via Box Office Mojo]

Also on HuffPost: