Although I respect Sting as a musician, I’m not sure he’s the greatest actor they could have chosen for the role in the original.
Plus, the film does have this tendency to be a “how we were” type of thing, a film for people who wish it was still 1964/5, which is fine, but I don’t think there’s anything particularly Mod about that. The Mods of ‘64 were not looking back to films for inspiration before (save perhaps the mid 1950s and Roman Holiday perhaps but even then probably only for the style). They were probably looking forward to the next thing they were going to get for their expanding wardrobes.
So I am in two minds. I want to know what they do with it as a film, but I am also not really bothered whether it is a success or not. Mod’s moved on - it’s not all about fighting on the seafront anymore and it finds itself as much at home in the modern world as it did in 1964.
If people do go down to Brighton or Clacton at the bank holiday (as they may indeed this very day), it’s probably through nostalgia rather than the seaside being in any innate sense closer to Mod. A 1960s Mod brought forward in time to now probably wouldn’t be seen dead in today’s Clacton on the bank holiday. Brighton is a bit different - I think its fame and continued popularity has seen it adjust towards a more modern perspective. Perhaps because of Quadrophenia itself.
So let’s see how it goes.