With Before Midnight about to hit theaters (check out our review), it is unsurprising that Richard Linklater is once more looking to the future and that future appears to include a sequel (of sorts) to his most iconic of films, Dazed and Confused.
Linklater has been making plans to bring us a ‘spiritual sequel’ to Dazed and Confused for a while now – and he seems to be about to ready to shoot, saying that he hopes to start filming this fall. What ‘spiritual’ means, exactly, I’m not certain. I assume it means that we cannot expect the same characters many years on, but perhaps a ‘college comedy’ about the contemporary generation? Linklater says that he’d like to work with a big ensemble. Hmm.
In other Linklater news – and attached to his thematics of growing pains – the director is preparing to finally finish the coming-of-age film Growing Up that he’s been shooting for the past 11 years. It’s a fascinating idea, actually: Linklater has been working with child star Ellar Salmon since 2002, when the kid was only six, shooting the film bit by bit each year as Salmon grew up. So we shall literally get a view of a child growing into a teenager. It’s a unique challenge for a director, but one that Linklater seems to have risen to. He seems quite happy with the results. Here’s what he said:
Believe it or not, every project is basically as designed. When people ask anything like what you said, of course. To me, film is all about structure and planning, and trying to get it exactly the way you’re thinking of it. The process was what it was about, so I’m not really surprised that it’s pretty much an exploration of what I thought it would be.
The film is a film, though, not a mini-series and will run at a feature-length time.
There’s a lot we can expect from Richard Linklater in the next few years, then. Growing Up sounds noteworthy simply for the method he’s employed, whether or not it’s ultimately successful. And as for a Dazed and Confused sequel? That remains to be seen. Linklater has had good luck with his sequels so far. No reason to suspect he won’t keep that luck going.