Screenwriting
Yates along with friend, director and stunt man Hal Needham, wrote Smokey and the Bandit II (1980). Yates also wrote the screenplay for The Cannonball Run (1981) film with the intention of giving the lead role to Steve McQueen. McQueen, however, was diagnosed with cancer early in 1980 and was unable to do the film, leading to the casting of Burt Reynolds. Yates had a brief cameo in The Cannonball Run as the race organizer who lays out the ground rules before the beginning of the race.
While Yates was not involved in them, The Cannonball Run was followed by one sequel using his characters: Cannonball Run II (1984), and a third, Speed Zone! (1989), which apart from being about the race, and a small cameo by Jamie Farr's character, had no other connections.
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