Richard Linklater drops Mr. Limpet to focus on Dazed And Confused’s “spiritual sequel”

Though it seemed just last month that Richard Linklater would inevitably follow Boyhood with The Incredible Mr. Limpet, much as we all must eventually put away childish things and speak as a man-fish, now The Hollywood Reporter says Linklater has exited the remake. And while Warner Bros. searches for a director who’s more interested in guiding a Zach Galifianakifish through CGI waters, Linklater is instead turning his attention—and Boyhood-boosted sway—to another of his long-rumored passion projects: his “spiritual sequel” to Dazed And Confused.

Definitely not a direct follow-up to Dazed And Confused where they’re all ghosts, the “spiritual sequel” is nevertheless similarly inspired by Linklater’s life, following a new cast of college freshmen characters across a weekend in the 1980s as they try to make the baseball team. When Linklater discussed the project with Collider in 2009, it was titled That’s What I’m Talking About and Linklater had deemed it “the funniest thing I ever wrote”—although his attempt to get it made for $14 million fell apart. But with the success of Boyhood, he now has a much better chance at making it a reality.

Though really, Richard Linklater, isn’t the story of a man who’s magically transformed into a fish and has to make fish buddies also a spiritual Dazed And Confused sequel? They’re both about joining new schools and learning to go with the flow. What’s the difference?