​Pussy Riot Supposedly in Talks to Be in Spring Breakers Sequel [Updated]

So this is strange. In light of James Franco denouncing the sequel for the movie Spring Breakers (entitled Spring Breakers: The Second Coming), Indie Wire is reporting that members of Pussy Riot are set to meet with the producers about a potentially big role in the follow up. While Harmony Korine has not endorsed the project, Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund is set to take the helm of the film, leading the Spring Breakers idea into a new, more radically feminist direction.

Producer Chris Hanley is apparently going ham with the marketing right now, so this could just be a Cannes-set PR stunt to lend some credibility (via common balaclavas?) to a sequel. But Irvine Welsh, who penned Trainspotting, is definitely attached to the film, which may or may not pit. According to Indie Wire:

Members of Russian punks/activists Pussy Riot are set to meet with producers this week about possibly starring in the movie. Frontwomen Nadezhda “Nadya” Tolokonnikova and Maria “Masha” Alyokhina (pictured above, far left and far right) will consider the Jonas Akerlund directed project that is being sold as feminist statement.

“The fiction of ‘Spring Breakers’ never met with the reality of Pussy Riots — until now,” producer Chris Hanely told Variety. “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.”

This seems like a marketing ploy to me, but at the same time a Pussy Riot-endorsed/starring progressivist feminist movie without James Franco in cornrows does sound pretty rad.

Update: Looks like it was a hoax indeed. Pussy Riot took to their Twitter to shut down the rumors. Nice try, Hanely.

Image via Getty.