A sequel to St. Elmo's Fire, the 1985 film that helped define the Brat Pack, is inching forward — and Rob Lowe says he is one of the people pushing it.
What Lowe said
Appearing on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Lowe confirmed that a screenplay is in active development, Deadline reported. "I'm trying to get it done, but I'm excited," he said, adding that the team is focused on the script above all: "Everyone wants to do it. We just need to get the script right, and that's what we're working on."
Where things actually stand
For all the enthusiasm, the project is early. There is no greenlight, no director and no release date, and the sequel remains at the screenplay stage. That is, however, a step beyond where things were in mid-2024, when Deadline first reported that Sony Pictures was exploring a follow-up without a script or confirmed cast talks. Whether Sony remains attached to the current script stage has not been formally confirmed.
Lowe's "everyone wants to do it" suggests the original cast is enthusiastic, but no co-stars have been announced as formally signed on. Demi Moore has been cited in earlier reporting as interested in a reunion, Today noted.
The original — and why now
St. Elmo's Fire, directed by the late Joel Schumacher and released in 1985, followed seven friends muddling through life just after college. Its cast — Lowe, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Andrew McCarthy, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson and Mare Winningham — became emblematic of the Brat Pack, the group of young actors who defined the era's coming-of-age films.
Lowe offered a theory for the film's staying power: "The reason that St. Elmo's continues to mean a lot to people is because it's such a great snapshot of your 20s" — a hook that a sequel set decades later could revisit from the other end of life. Interest has also been buoyed by Andrew McCarthy's 2024 documentary Brats, which reunited the cast to reckon with the label that followed them. Schumacher, who died in 2020, would not be involved.
For now, the sequel is a script in progress and a pledge from one of its most eager backers. Whether that becomes an actual film is the next question.
