Pussy Riot May Or May Not Be In Talks For "Spring Breakers 2", But James Franco Is Still Not Impressed

Lots of exciting – and some not so exciting – Spring Breakers-related news today. First off, we found out that Pussy Riot – the Russian feminist punk rockers Nadezhda “Nadya” Tolokonnikova and Maria “Masha” Alyokhina - are coming to Cannes this week to meet with “Spring Breakers: Second Coming” director Jonas Akerlund and producers Chris and Roberta Hanley, and Jordan Gertner. According to Variety, Pussy Riot, who were jailed for two years in their native Russia for performing an anti-Putin punk prayer at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, are now in talks to appear in the upcoming Spring Breakers sequel.

James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, Selena Gomez
Second Coming is in the pipeline, without Franco or Korine's blessing.

“Our director is coming in especially to meet Nadya and Maria to discuss being in the movie,” Chris Hanley told Variety. “The fiction of Spring Breakers never met with the reality of Pussy Riot — until now.”

“Since there are some suggestions in the reporting on Second Coming that it is a ‘weak’ or ‘lame’ sequel, the new Irvine Welsh screenplay has the strongest feminine voice of the Spring Breakers characters so far. And Nadya and Maria of Pussy Riot are a powerful new voice of world feminism. We are all into radical innovations.”

Watch the Spring Breakers trailer below:

As for the criticism, Hanley might be referring to a bit of bashing that James Franco unleashed over Instagram recently. Earlier this week, Franco posted a grim-looking picture of himself, accompanied by the following tirade: “STATEMENT ABOUT SPRING BREAKERS 2:

This is not being done with Harmony Korine or my consent. The original was wholly Harmony's creation and these producers are capitalizing on that innovative film to make money on a weak sequel. I want everyone to know that whoever is involved in the sequel is jumping on board a poison ship. It will be a terrible film, with a horrible reason d'être: to make money off someone else's creativity. Can you imagine someone making the sequel to "Taxi Driver" without Scorcese and DeNiro's consents? Insanity! I'm speaking up for Harmony and his original vision and for any creative person who cares about preserving artistic integrity.”

According to Hanley, Second Coming is actually intended to explore hot button issues like women’s rights and bodily autonomy and ;resent them in a spring break setting.