Alexander Payne’s ‘Election’ Sequel Not Being Made Any Time Soon

In a recent interview with Collider, filmmaker Alexander Payne gave an update regarding the current status of his upcoming “Election” sequel, titled “Tracy Flick Can’t Win.”

Payne confirmed that the sequel to the 1999 dark comedy, starring Reese Witherspoon, is still currently in the very early stages of development. However, he also mentions how he still has other projects he wants to work on before tackling this sequel:

Tom Perotta, who wrote the book Election, has written a very fine sequel, and Reese Witherspoon and I have talked about it. And Jim Taylor and I, my co-writer, have talked about doing it. But we just haven’t gotten to it yet. It’s only because everything takes a while, and I have a couple things to do before that. We’ll just see how it falls. It would be lovely to do.

Witherspoon will be reprising her role as go-getter Tracy Flick, which was supposed to debut on Paramount’s streaming service, Paramount+. Payne will pen the film adaptation with Jim Taylor.

Witherspoon’s best performance has always been as Flick. She’s never done better work. Payne’s election political satire tackled topics that have, sadly, become all-too-relevant today. I don’t know if a sequel was necessary, but I’m intrigued.

Payne‘s perfectly shaped black comedy had Witherspoon‘s Flick as a female Richard Nixontype — resentful, craven. Flick just about did anything to win the school election; cheating, fucking and lying her way to the top.

Payne has “The Holdovers” with Paul Giamatti, being released in November. He’s back and that’s great news for anyone who loves his authentic depictions of broken middle-American outcasts.

Payne’s other Americana classics include “Sideways,” “Nebraska,” “About Schmidt” and “Citizen Ruth.”