Harmony Korine is reviving ‘The Trap’ as an animated thriller
Harmony Korine is making his animated debut with his long-gestating The Trap, though without its original stars and in a whole new medium. The filmmaker was first set to reunite with Spring Breakers stars James Franco and Gucci Mane back in 2016 for the feature, which was then set up at Annapurna as a live-action film.
Back then, Benicio del Toro, Al Pacino, and Jamie Foxx were also attached to star in the film. The feature floundered for years, and Korine is now resurrecting the project at his multimedia design collective EDGLRD, as reported by Variety. Korine’s The Trap will now be an animated adventure and EDGLRD is in discussions with production partners in Japan.
The film is described “as ‘Oldboy’ set through a hip-hop filter, ‘The Trap’ imagines another sun-kissed gangster saga, following an ex-con newly released from prison and dead set on revenge once he learns that his one-time accomplice has become a top-selling rapper.” The first EDGLRD release, Aggro Dr1ft, premiered in September 2023.
Korine’s also beginning pre-production on a comedy film that’s said to focus on “motion capture tech and virtual creation,” while putting last touches on a surrealist home invasion movie, filmed in first-person perspective. The latter project is being planned for a fall release, while Korine’s experimentation is sure to draw a strong following.
“The film marketplace, especially in the U.S., is very, very narrow,” EDGLRD film strategy head Eric Kohn told Variety. “If you only consider box office as a metric for success from an exhibition standpoint, you’re cutting off other ways to think outside the box. If you don’t continually reinforce this idea that movies and media can travel and exist across different frameworks, then people default to one mode. Right now, younger audiences don’t want their options limited.”
Korine and his multimedia design collective EDGLRD are currently in talks with production partners in Japan for the film. Additional information, such as a cast and release date, are yet to be announced.
