More than 13 years after Harmony Korine unleashed his coming-of-age erotic thriller Spring Breakers in theaters, American actress, singer, director, and writer Bella Thorne wants to make a sequel, under the working title Spring Breakers 2. According to an official press release, Thorne will direct and star in the sequel, based on her own screenplay.
Thorne announced her plans for Spring Breakers 2 during an interview on August 5th with Alex Cooper on the Call Her Daddy podcast. Thorne’s screenplay for Spring Breakers 2 is complete. In her story, five girls enter the wildest party of their lives during spring break, only to realize they were never guests, just targets.
“The original ‘Spring Breakers’ was an iconic cultural touchstone, and taking the reins as a filmmaker is a dream project for me,” Thorne said about Korine’s 2013 cult classic. “I’m so grateful to Chris and Roberta Hanley for trusting me with their world. I’ve always been drawn to stories that explore the unapologetic, unfiltered side of youth culture, and I can’t wait to deliver a wild, high-stakes thrill ride that honors the first film while forging its own distinct path.”
“After seeing an early cut of Bella’s feature debut, ‘Color Your Hurt,’ Roberta and I instantly recognized a fearless, disruptive directorial talent, and a new creative voice. Her visual style and vision to weave real-life non-actors with seasoned performers gave her version of the story an unvarnished authenticity that completely blew us away,” said producer Chris Hanley. “We invited her to bring that same raw energy to her own ‘Spring Breakers’ project, and her screenplay offers a brand-new, female POV. This isn’t a traditional sequel. It’s Bella’s singular vision, capturing the rebellious DNA of the original film for a new generation.”
The original Spring Breakers film follows four college girls (Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine) who hold up a restaurant to fund their spring break vacation. While partying, drinking, and taking drugs, they are arrested, only to be bailed out by a drug and arms dealer, played by James Franco. There’s no telling if the ‘core four’ will return for Thorne’s sequel, though I would not rule anything out until we hear more.
Don’t expect James Franco to reprise his iconic role as Alien. Franco famously torched an earlier 2014 attempt at a sequel, calling it a “poison ship” that was capitalizing on Korine’s original film. More importantly, Thorne’s version centers entirely on a new female POV, charting a fresh path forward rather than leaning on old nostalgia or retconning character deaths.
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