Legacy sequels usually run on mythology: a hero to recast, a world to re-enter, a logo that still sells. Joel Schumacher’s Brat Pack ensemble offers none of that, only a clique of Georgetown graduates finding out that adulthood arrives before anyone is ready for it. That is why its long-promised follow-up has spent years as talk-show conversation rather than paperwork, and why Rob Lowe’s latest update matters: the project is about to exist on the page.

“It is definitely in the works, for sure,” Lowe said when asked about the sequel during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live, as Variety reported. “All of us actors want to do it.” The enthusiasm is not the news. The cast has never been the obstacle. The news is the second half of his answer, which put a delivery window on the screenplay.

The idea first surfaced publicly two years ago. Lowe, who played the saxophone-playing charmer Billy Hicks, told Entertainment Tonight at the time that he had “met with the studio” and had “been talking about doing it for about four months,” while warning that it was “very, very, very, very, very early stages.” That same year Demi Moore said that “conversations are happening” and that talks were underway with Sony, the studio behind the original, which she described as “really behind [and] driving this” even as it was still “looking for the right partner” to write it.

It is not the property’s first attempted return. NBC developed a series version, with Josh Berman attached to write and executive produce alongside Chris King, pitched as a modern take on close friends struggling with career, commitment and the responsibilities of adulthood. It never made it to air. A film sequel reuniting the original actors is a different proposition, one that trades a reboot’s blank slate for the harder task of showing who these characters became.

The original, released by Columbia Pictures in 1985, starred Lowe, Moore, Emilio Estevez, Andrew McCarthy, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Andie MacDowell and Mare Winningham. Schumacher directed it and co-wrote the script with Carl Kurlander. Critics were unkind, but the film was a box-office hit, turning a $10 million budget into $37.8 million. Schumacher died in 2020, so whoever takes the camera now inherits a group portrait without the man who framed it.

According to Lowe, the first draft is due in the first week of October. Variety’s report names no writer, director or production start.

Lowe’s own caveat from two years ago still applies: “So we will see.” But within days, actors who have spent two years saying yes to an idea will be saying yes, or no, to actual pages.

Tags: Pelé, Baker Mayfield, Rob Lowe, legacy-sequel, Andie MacDowell, Demi Moore, Sony Pictures, St. Elmo's Fire

St. Elmo’s Fire sequel gets a script deadline as Rob Lowe says the actors all want back in

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