Harmony Korine Taps Matthew McConaughey for ‘The Beach Bum’
Harmony Korine’s been laying fairly low since his last feature, 2013’s neon-hued crime rave Spring Breakers. Word on the street is that his next feature should be ready for the public’s eyeballs sometime this year, with the announced title of The Trap and a tantalizing cast including Al Pacino, Benicio del Toro, Robert Pattinson, and previous muse Gucci Mane. But even as he prepares to once again loose the mayhem that is a new Korine movie on the world, the director has begun to shore up plans for his next next feature. And today brings the news that he’s landed an all-too-appropriate star for the gestating project.
Deadline reports that Matthew McConaughey will star in Harmony Korine’s The Beach Bum, with the most surprising aspect of that news being that Matthew McConaughey has not already appeared in a film titled The Beach Bum. Korine will write and direct the stoner comedy (man, was this role written with McConaughey in mind?), and McConaughey will portray the lead role of Moondog, a “rebellious charmer” who presumably enjoys some of that all-natural relaxation.
The Deadline item describes the film as a “fast-paced, uplifting and irreverent comedy,” which makes it sound like Korine‘s going to go madcap-screwball, a combination I can barely imagine. When has anything that Korine has ever done even approached the parking lot to the ballpark of “uplifting?” Looks like we‘re in for a more visually sumptuous riff on the works of Cheech and Chong, or something to that effect.