Harmony Korine to Revive Hip-Hop Film 'The Trap' as an Anime

The original version of the film was set to star Jamie Foxx and Benecio del Toro.

June 29, 2024

Alessandra Benedetti - Corbis / Corbis via Getty Images

Filmmaker Harmony Korine has alternate plans for his long-awaited film, The Trap.

The director, who released his first EDGLRD film, Aggro Drift, last year, now envisions The Trap as a hip-hop anime feature, nearly ten years after it was intended to be a live-action film slated to star Jamie Foxx and Benecio del Toro. According to Variety, the EDGLRD team is currently holding production talks with partners in Japan, while The Trap is now described as “Oldboy set through a hip-hop filter."

While the film's visuals are sure to be updated, the plot follows a formerly incarcerated gangster who turns to revenge after his once-accomplice becomes a famous rapper.

Korine's familiar with working with rap artists since Aggro Drift co-starred Travis Scott, and the filmmaker's 2012 A24 comedy Spring Breakers had an appearance from Gucci Mane.

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."