Variety reports that Variety was wrong when they first reported that Pussy Riot was “In Talks to Star in ‘Spring Breakers’ Sequel (EXCLUSIVE)”. Apparently producer Chris Hanley told Variety that him and Spring Breakers: Second Coming sequel director Jonas Akerlund were meeting with Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina at Cannes shortly to discuss the two activists starring in the film and served this spiel:
Our director is coming in especially to meet Nadya and Maria to discuss being in the movie. The fiction of ‘Spring Breakers’ never met with the reality of Pussy Riots — until now… Since there are some suggestions in the reporting on ‘Second Coming’ that it is a ‘weak’ or ‘lame’ sequel, the new Irvine Welsh screenplay has the strongest feminine voice of the ‘Spring Breakers’ characters so far. And Nadya and Maria of Pussy Riot are a powerful new voice of world feminism. We are all into radical innovations.
He was full of shit, according to a statement from Inge Colsen of Pussy Riot’s public relations firm, Girlie Action: “This news is ridiculous. It’s not true we’re in talks with ‘Spring Breakers’ producers and we have no plans to do that.” In other news, Pussy Riot has a public relations firm.
They also tweeted from their official English-language account:
We're super surprised to hear this crazy stuff on any kind of talks about us and the Spring Breakers. Looks like somebody's cheesy joke!
— Pussy Riot (@pussyrrriot) May 18, 2014
Besides, we don't even have spring break in Russia – down here we get breaks from one prison term till the next one!
— Pussy Riot (@pussyrrriot) May 18, 2014
Despite the Pussy Riot imagery replete in the original Spring Breakers, this whole idea was really idiotic. The activists were recently released after serving almost two years in gulag-style prison camps for the imaginary charge of “hooliganism with the intent to incite religious hatred” over several seconds of singing a Putin protest song inside a church. Why would they follow bikini-clad young girls on an absurdist deadly crime spree of self-discovery in Spring Breakers: Second Coming to “do battle with an extreme militant Christian sect that attempts to convert them.”
James Franco aka “Alien” is not a fan of the non-sequel film, writing on Instagram:
This is not being done with Harmony Korine or my consent. The original was wholly Harmony’s creation and these producers are capitalizing on that innovative film to make money on a weak sequel. I want everyone to know that whoever is involved in the sequel is jumping on board a poison ship. It will be a terrible film, with a horrible reason d’être: to make money off someone else’s creativity. Can you imagine someone making the sequel to “Taxi Driver” without Scorsese and De Niro’s consents? Insanity! I’m speaking up for Harmony and his original vision and for any creative person who cares about preserving artistic integrity.
Never forget.
