Paramount Pictures has announced that Tracy Flick Can’t Win — a sequel to Alexander Payne’s cult classic 1999 comedy Election — is being made for Paramount+.
Payne is returning as director, with the original film’s lead Reese Witherspoon to produce and reprise her starring role. Based on Tom Perrotta’s 1998 novel of the same name, Election watches as the high school teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) finds himself on a collision course with the over-achieving student politician, Tracy Flick (Witherspoon).
The satire drawing parallels between the worlds of high school and politics was Payne’s second feature on the heels of 1996’s Citizen Ruth and proved to be his breakthrough project, netting him and his collaborators three Independent Spirit Awards, a WGA Award and an Oscar nomination, with Witherspoon landing her first Golden Globe nomination.
The Election sequel is based on a follow-up novel by Perrotta, which was published by Scribner in June. It’s another satirical dark comedy that finds the eponymous Tracy in adulthood and still struggling to fight her way to the top.
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