Director “Savage” Steve Holland had a short but distinct movie career in the ’80s. He was just out of film school when he got the chance to helm his own tortured takes on the teen comedy, like the John-Cusack-starring Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer, followed by Anthony Edwards’ How I Got Into College. However, Holland’s trek to the comedic dark side, like Lane (Cusack)’s multiple suicide attempts in BOD, left sunnier ’80s cinema audiences a bit befuddled, and none of his three movies were hits at the box office. But they all (especially the first two) found new life on cable, where HBO appeared to play them on a continuous loop. Of the three, BOD became the best-known cult classic, with taglines like the homicidal newsboy’s “I want my two dollars!” still resonating in the pop-culture stratosphere. Nevertheless, Holland’s career as a feature-film director appeared to be over by the end of the decade.
He found new life in children’s television, helming multiple episodes of Lizzie McGuire and Big Time Rush. And now, three decades later, a new Holland movie is on the horizon: In a Fast Company interview by Joe Berkowitz, Holland reports that a sequel to One Crazy Summer is in the works. Called One Epic Fail, it will include original OCS cast members Joel Murray and Bobcat Goldthwait (who is now a prominent film director in his own right). Cusack, who wound up not being a fan of the original movies—“John Cusack didn’t like Better Off Dead at all,” Holland remembers, and the actor apparently liked the followup even less—will likely not be on board. But if Cusack didn’t like BOD, he may be in the minority: A recent 30th-anniversary screening in Hollywood sold out quickly, indicating a continued interest in Holland and an audience that will likely check out the upcoming Summer sequel. In the meantime, here’s some Van Halen:
