Richard Linklater has been trying to make a “spiritual sequel” to Dazed and Confused—according to Slate’s resident Linklater fanatic, Seth Stevenson, the very best of the director’s movies—for years now. Back in 2009, he explained that it was a “spiritual” sequel, because “it’s not the same characters,” but just as Dazed and Confused reflected his high school experience, the sequel would be inspired by his experience of college. He already wrote the script (working title: That’s What I’m Talking About), which is set in 1980. “It’s about a weekend in college in that time period,” he said, adding, “I think it’s the funniest thing I ever wrote.”
Now Linklater has said in multiple recent interviews that he hopes to shoot the film this fall. And he has provided some new details about the story. “It’s set on the first weekend of college with a bunch of people when you move into where you’re going to be living and you meet all these people,” he told Jeff Goldsmith. “It’s all that partying you do before the first class, if you get 3 or 4 days, so it’s a long weekend of college.”
Previously Linklater has been able to line up financing for the movie, which he budgeted at $14 million, but couldn’t get a distributor. Judging from the Q-and-A’s with Goldsmith and with Reddit, the money side may still be unsettled. But as Kristin Lopez at IndieWire suggests, perhaps he should consider crowdfunding. That’s one celebrity Kickstarter I could get behind.
Previously:
Dazed and Confused and the Cinema of Aimlessness
The Disappointing Return of Dazed and Confused’s Best-Loved Character
