Richard Linklater to Possibly Shoot His ‘Spiritual Sequel’ to Dazed and Confused This Year

Now that he’s possibly ended his “Before” trilogy with perhaps his best film to date, director Richard Linklater is trying to go back to another of his films for inspiration to continue his sequel streak. During a Reddit AMA last week, Linklater let it slip that he hoped to go into production this fall on the long-gestating project That’s What I’m Talking About, his spiritual sequel to 1993’s Dazed and Confused.

First talked about way back in 2009 on Collider, the film was halted after financing fell apart due to lack of distribution. The director called it “the funniest thing I ever wrote,” and though it doesn’t feature the same characters as Dazed and Confused he went on to say that “If Dazed was my High School, this is my college.  It’s about a weekend in college in that time period,” which puts it sometime in the 1980s territory. One more film after that in the 90s and Linklater has another thematic trilogy on his hands, but couldn’t Slacker fit that description as well? We’re getting ahead of ourselves here…

Linklater is in a great position now after a hit with his previous film Bernie and the raves Before Midnight has received so far. Couple that with the possibility of some Oscar buzz for Midnight’s screenplay or the two amazing lead performances and it could give him enough clout to get this delayed semi-autobiographical look at his college years into production ASAP.

A semi-sequel to Dazed and Confused could be great given the way the way he’s tread over similar consecutive themes to amazing returns within the universe of the “Before” trilogy. There’s ample reason to believe Linklater wouldn’t let That’s What I’m Talking About fall into clichés and just simply rip off Dazed and Confused. But are people interested in a film like this that takes place over a set period of time that tries to shoehorn in signifiers of a given decade as an all-encompassing means to explain said decade? Will it just be American Graffiti in the 80s just like Dazed was merely American Graffiti in the 70s?  Don’t kill me just yet I’m only playing devil’s advocate here – I think the movie sounds great, and I hope Linklater can continue to create these cinematic through-lines that thematically tie together his evolving filmography.

Source: Movies.com