You’d think that after spending twelve years making a single film, the idea of tackling that sort of long-term project again in the near future would be the furthest thought from a director’s mind, and for Boyhood director Richard Linklater that certainly appeared to be the case. Since the film began showing at festivals and captivating audiences young and old, Linklater has been asked ad nauseam whether he’d consider making a film dealing with the aftermath of the events in the film, a “Young Manhood” if you will, and with every posing of the question the Oscar-nominated director has been adamant about this being the end of the titular boy’s cinematic tale. Or, well, he had been.
“[Boyhood] first met its audience exactly a year ago and for the first six months of the year, my answer to that [question] was absolutely not,” Linklater told Jeff Goldsmith on his Q&A Podcast (via The Playlist). “This was twelve years, it was first grade through 12th grade; it was about getting out of high school. I had no idea about another story, there was nothing to say. It hadn’t crossed my mind.” But, as Linklater confesses to Goldsmith, he has come around a bit to the idea of a followup many are clamoring for him to make.
“I don’t know if it’s been a combination of finally feeling that this is over or being asked a similar question a bunch over the last year, that I thought, well, I wake up in the morning thinking, the 20s are pretty formative, you know? That’s where you really become who you’re going to be. … So, I will admit my mind has drifted towards [this sequel idea]. … It’s impossible to say what may or may not come of it… I would love to keep working with this cast and I think we all would. But that can’t be the primary reason to do it. You always need something to say. You can’t do it just cause you want to work with your friends, you gotta have something really inside you you’re trying to communicate about those years. It might happen, but I don’t know, it’s in the ether in the moment.”
The idea of a Boyhood sequel is certainly an interesting one, as I have found myself wondering what happens to Ellar Coltrane‘s character and that of his on-screen family members’ once he leaves the mountain he’s on in the film’s closing scene. And, full disclosure, perhaps the idea has grown even more fascinating to me given I’m only a few short years ahead of Coltrane’s Mason as far as age is concerned. Where does Mason go next? Where do he and I diverge? What path does he ultimately choose to take?
Linklater does, however, mention to Goldsmith his next film, That’s What I’m Talking About, is a spiritual sequel of sorts to both Boyhood and Dazed and Confused, “if that’s possible,” meaning it is likely to cover some similar territory as what we would likely see in a followup to his twelve-years-in-the-making triumph. Regarding That’s What I’m Talking About, Linklater says it is a “wild party comedy” and tells Goldsmith Paramount will likely step in to distribute after helping with Boyhood‘s home video release as well as its Oscar campaign, which leads me to believe we’ll be seeing a larger release with this one.
I think I’m pretty much in the bag for just about anything Linklater decides to make, so all this is really music to my ears, and after seeing what he has done with the Before series I feel assured he will only move ahead with a Boyhood followup — whether a straight sequel or a spiritual/thematic sequel — if he does, in fact, have something to say about the character and the next stages of his life. Just as I am curious in learning Mason’s next steps, I’m intrigued to see what Linklater decides to do here. I guess we just have to wait and see.
