Here's the good news: Richard Linklater already made his Boyhood follow-up, a spiritual sequel to that and Dazed and Confused formally titled That's What I'm Talking About and now referred to as Everyone Wants Some, and its close to completion. The bad news? It doesn't come out until April 15, 2016, as announced by Paramount today.
Variety covered the release date push. This certifies the film not coming into the awards competition this fall, after many speculated he would be nominated for Best Screenplay or Director again as he was last year, possibly going toe-to-toe with Alejandro G. Inarritu for another time as the Birdman filmmaker lines up The Reverent for the upcoming competition. Don't take this as lack of confidence from the studio front just yet, though.
As seen recently, spring is the new centerfold for high-profile independent movies. The Grand Budapest Hotel is the most prominent to capitalize on this last year and Ex Machina shining around that time earlier this year. Wes Anderson's movie ended up in the awards competition despite the early-in-the-year release, and there's an okay chance Alex Garland's movie may do the same (but it's probably a little too weird and high-minded for the Academy's liking, so don't get your hopes up just yet). So it's possible Linklater may put his tux on again in 2017, but that's too early to think about just yet, unless we're talking superhero movies.
With this April placeholder, Paramount moved away what was initially set to come out on this date, an untitled comedy starring Leslie Mann, produced by her husband Judd Apatow and directed by The Hangover writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, with no replacement release announced.
An '80s-centered college comedy centered on a baseball pitcher (Blake Jenner) who parties exclusively while his team is ranked highest in his college division, no other details are known at this time, other than Tyler Hoechlin, Wyatt Russell, Ryan Guzman, Zoey Deutch, Will Brittain and Glen Powell rounding out the rest of the cast. Producer superstar Megan Ellison shepherded this alongside Sean Daniel, Linklater, Sandra Adair, John Sloss and Ginger Sledge. Daniel was one of the producers, behind Linklater and the late Jim Jacks, on Dazed and Confused.
As stated before, it'll "a continuation of Boyhood" in tone, but without any of the characters or actors from that movie or his other 1993 classic. In addition to this film, Linklater also is attached to direct Where'd You Go, Bernadette, based on Maria Semple's best-selling novel and to be adapted by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who also wrote the screenplays for The Spectacular Now, The Fault in Our Stars, (500) Days of Summer, this weekend's Paper Towns and the upcoming The Rosie Project, to star Jennifer Lawrence. Linklater also helped with Nickelodeon's TV series School of Rock, based on his 2003 film of the same name, including directing the pilot.
Image courtesy of Roger Wong/INFphoto.com