Richard Linklater has thought about making a ‘Boyhood’ sequel that starts when its lead character is 30.
The ‘Before Sunrise’ director, 62, famously filmed the epic coming-of-age tale featuring Ellar Coltrane as Mason Evans Jr over the course of 12 years from 2002 to 2013, and said the six-time Oscar winning project still “breathes” for him.
He told Empire magazine in an interview to mark the Arrow Video release of the film when asked if there could be a follow-up: “There were things we could have done – it just hasn’t really grabbed.
“For all we know, we could just jump in at age 30 or something. Who the hell knows?”
But Linklater, also famed for his indie film ‘Slacker’ and ‘Dazed and Confused’, said he already knows what happens to Ethan’s character next as it’s been charted in his series of films about college and his ‘Before’ trilogy about the youthful hunt for love, marriage, kids, divorce and middle-age.
He said about the film, which also featured Patricia Arquette in a Best Supporting Actress-winning role as Mason Jr’s mum and Ethan Hawke as his dad: “I know what happened next – in fact, it’s represented in a bunch of movie I’ve made (about) college life… ‘Before Sunrise’, or ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’
“That movie begins with a guy arriving at college. It still breathes for me.
“It’s not calcified in some time. I mean, it’s a document of 2002 to 2013, but it was never really just about that.
“My goal there, probably my larger project in this world, was to – in an entertaining, hopefully watchable way – show what life was like, you know? “What it was like to be a human at any moment in time.”
Linklater added he’ll probably rewatch the 165-minute film when its 12th anniversary comes around in 2026, as that was the amount of years it took to make.
He said: “Give it a couple more years, and then I’ll watch it again, see how it resonates in my head.
“But it was such a good experience and achieved what we set out to do. So you leave it there and feel good about it.”
