Harmony Korine Puzzled by Upcoming ‘Spring Breakers 2’: “There’s No Need For A Sequel”

Harmony Korine is being interviewed by THR. and it quickly becomes apparent that he doesn’t give a damn about modern cinema anymore.

It’s come to the point where Korine has admitted that he’s not even watching movies anymore, and would rather play video games and create unusual content for his EDGLRD productions company (“Everything now feels so boring and homogenous”).

Korine goes on to admit that his lack of interest in modern cinema extends to having no clue what the Oscar-nominated films are this year. When asked, he says he has not seen “Weapons” or “Sinners,” nor does he seem to know what they are.

I watched “Smokey and the Bandit” recently. What did I go see in the last year? [Pauses to remember] I saw “Smurfs 2.” I saw that. I look at the list of nominations for awards and I’ve only heard of two of them. I don’t know why that is. I used to live in movie theaters. Now I don’t even know who all of these people are.

Because nothing in Hollywood can remain untouched, a sequel to Korine’s 2012 fever dream “Spring Breakers” was recently shot. Titled “Spring Breakers: Salvation Mountain,” and starring Bella Thorne, Grace Van Dien, Ariel Martin, True Whitaker, the project is from the same producers who brought us the original — but that’s where the similarities end.

Korine, who has no involvement in the sequel, is puzzled by it; why would you even want to continue this story?

I have no interest in it. The first movie exists, it already is what it is for me. The thought wouldn’t even enter my mind to be involved. I can’t imagine why you’d want to make another one because it already exists […] It’s already its own thing; there’s no need for a sequel. But it’s not up to me.

The sequel 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.

“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 memorable, 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.