Because nothing in Hollywood can remain untouched, a sequel to Harmony Korine’s 2012 fever dream “Spring Breakers” is officially underway. Titled “Spring Breakers: Salvation Mountain,” the project is coming from the same producers who brought us the original — but that’s where the similarities end.
Gone is Korine. Gone is the cast that helped make Spring Breakers a neon-soaked cultural moment — James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Benson. In their place? Bella Thorne, Grace Van Dien (Stranger Things), Ariel Martin (Zombies 2), and True Whitaker (Godfather of Harlem), starring in what’s being billed as a “crime thriller for Gen Z.”
The new story follows a group of rebellious girls on a chaotic spring break road trip that spirals into violence — a premise that sounds like it’s trying to echo the dangerous allure of the original without understanding why it worked in the first place.
Producers Chris Hanley (American Psycho, The Virgin Suicides) and Jordan Gertner (Bully) are back, promising “bold, disruptive stories” and expressing an apparent belief that the “desire for Spring Break to go on forever” is worth chasing a decade later.
Let’s be honest: it isn’t.
“Spring Breakers” thrived on Korine’s singular voice — a satirical, trash-glam lens on American consumerism, desire, and self-destruction. Franco’s Alien cannot be replicated, the film’s candy-colored aesthetic became endlessly memeable, and its critique of millennial nihilism somehow landed. It was lightning in a bottle.
The idea of doing it again — especially with a completely new cast and a different director — feels like a misguided attempt to brand nostalgia for a movie that was never meant to be franchised.
Not to mention, this isn’t even the first time a sequel’s been attempted. Back in 2014, “Spring Breakers: The Second Coming” was announced with Jonas Åkerlund and a script by Irvine Welsh. That died quietly by 2017. A planned digital series? Also never saw the light of day.
So here we are again — trying to sequel a film that wasn’t built for sequels, attempting to re-bottle something that was never really about the plot. “Spring Breakers” was a vibe, a provocation. You can’t replicate that with just bikini-clad chaos and Gen Z buzzwords.
But hey — sales are open in Cannes, and someone’s buying.
