Besides the producers, no one from the original film is involved. Replacing Korine (if such a thing can be done) is director Matthew Bright (Freeway). And given that the original cast is too old for spring break, there’s a new group of co-eds, which includes Stranger Things‘ Grace Van Dien and Forest Whitaker’s daughter True Whitaker (Godfather Of Harlem). This version is even trying to recreate some of the magic by casting former Disney Channel stars. The original had a meta layer of lost innocence with the inclusion of Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez in their first truly adult roles post-Disney. This one’s got influencer Ariel Martin of the Zombies DCOM franchise and Zendaya’s former Shake It Up co-star Bella Thorne. Of course, Thorne’s already years past shedding her Disney image, and neither woman has the equivalent star power of their predecessors coming out of the House of Mouse.
The synopsis for the new crime thriller (via Variety) reads, “When their trip explodes out of control, they’re forced to outrun the chaos they’ve created.” If it’s a totally different story and almost completely new creative team, you have to wonder why they couldn’t have just made their own movie and left Spring Breakers out of it. (At least Fincher’s Once Upon A Time… sequel is based on a Tarantino script.) Knock-off sequels are nothing new, obviously, but this is the kind of project that used to go straight to DVD and immediately be forgotten. This one is being sold on the Cannes market, apparently.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Christian and Capture on Spring Breakers—Salvation Mountain and excited to keep exploring bold, new, disruptive stories around that wild, fever-dream of youth,” OG Spring Breakers producers Chris Hanley and Jordan Gertner said in a statement. “The desire for Spring Break to go on forever is something we’ve never let go of.”
