Richard Linklater is an interesting director who has directed two of my favorite films in Before Sunrise and Before Sunset as well as a film I watched on loop while I was in college; Dazed and Confused. Looking back over his filmography I realize I haven’t seen all of his work, but I have seen more than I originally assumed including A Scanner Darkly, Bad News Bears, The School of Rock and The Newton Boys. As a matter of fact, The Newton Boys is a film I was trying to recall for a story recently, but never did manage to conjure up the memory. That is a film I need to hit up on Netflix, not because it is all that great, but just as a refresher.
Anyway, looking over the list I quickly notice what style of Linklater film I enjoy over the others. The Before-series is a simple story pieced together by its director and stars and Dazed and Confused is also more of a “getting down to humanity” kind of film with just enough over the top comedy to separate it from the rest. Actually just writing about it makes me want to pick up that Criterion Collection release I was never quite sure if I wanted to purchase.
I mention all of this because CHUD has reported a story from a recent Dazed and Confused screening in which Linklater was on hand for a Q&A session and CHUD reports gave the following news:
[Linklater] talked a little bit about what’s coming next for him. And that would be ‘a sort of spiritual sequel’ to Dazed.
The movie, which he is shooting in and around Austin this summer, will be about the first weekend of college in 1980. So while thematically it’ll bookend Dazed, it won’t have any of the same characters.
Apparently this idea has been around for some time, but this is the first time I have heard of it (that I can remember).
Linklater has Me and Orson Welles coming out some time this year should a distributor decide to finally pick up the rights to it after it has received decent reviews out of Toronto and was recently the secret screening at SXSW.
