Reese Witherspoon is reprising her role as Tracy Flick from classic 1999 satire Election in Tracy Flick Can’t Win, a sequel that will also see original co-writer and director Alexander Payne return. The film will premiere exclusively on Paramount+.
Election was based on Tom Perrotta‘s novel about an overachieving student who runs for student government president in high school, but clashes with her social studies teacher who tries to sabotage her candidacy. The movie wasn’t a commercial hit but was a critical one, earning multiple Oscar nominations, and has since become a cult classic.
This sequel is based on Perrotta’s follow-up novel, another satirical dark comedy that catches up with Tracy in adulthood, still struggling to fight her way to the top. She’s now an assistant principal at a public high school, who hears that the longtime principal is about to abruptly retire. She sees an opportunity to ascend to the top job.
The book was only published earlier this year, so production is moving fast. It’s unclear exactly when production will begin, as Witherspoon is quite busy working on season two of The Morning Show, reprising another classic role for Legally Blonde 3, and working on romantic comedy Your Place Or Mine.
Payne is returning to direct and will also co-write the screenplay alongside Jim Taylor. Payne previously directed other well-liked movies such as Citizen Ruth, Nebraska, and Sideways. He’s currently working on The Holdovers with Sideways star Paul Giamatti.
Witherspoon will also produce the film alongside Lauren Neustadter under their Hello Sunshine banner, while Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa of Bona Fide Productions will do the same. Perrotta will serve as an executive producer.
No further details are available yet, but it will be interesting to revisit such a classic character over two decades later. In a review of Perrotta’s book, Vox’s Constance Grady called Flick “a Rorschach test for how we think about women, ambition, and the power dynamics of sex,” and her complexity in the first film is part of what made it so good.
With both Witherspoon and Payne returning, hopefully this sequel can be equally fascinating.
#Peace.Love.TracyFlickCantWin
