Paramount has announced that they have pushed writer-director Richard Linklater’s (Boyhood) upcoming baseball comedy, currently being referred to as Everybody Wants Some, to April 15, 2016.
The movie stars Blake Jenner (TV’s Glee) as a new pitcher at a highly-ranked college baseball team in 1980s Texas, who uses his status to party hard with his teammates. Wyatt Russell (22 Jump Street), Tyler Hoechlin (Hall Pass), Zoey Deutch (Vampire Academy), Ryan Guzman (Jem and the Holograms), Glen Powell (The Expendables 3), and Will Brittain (A Teacher) also star. The movie is said to be similar to Linklater’s classic, Dazed and Confused, which followed a group of teenagers in a small Texan town on the last day of school.
Paramount picked up the rights to the film last September, right as Linklater was gearing up for his awards campaign for Boyhood. The movie was called That’s What I’m Talking About when they acquired the rights.
There are differing perspectives on the news regarding the release date. One side could say it’s disappointing to see Linklater’s next release, following his Oscar-nominated epic, be a sports comedy with a spring release – typically a studio’s dumping ground for movies that won’t make summer money or be nominated for awards. The movie could also be seen as something of a palate cleanser for Linklater, after the release and promotion a coming-of-age drama that was more than 12 years in the making. Linklater is also in talks to direct The Rosie Project starring Jennifer Lawrence (Joy).
This is Linklater’s second baseball film. He directed the 2005 remake of the classic, Bad News Bears.