Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence play scientists trying to warn people that the end is near in the new Netflix comedy Don’t Look Up, from Anchorman director Adam McKay.
In the just-released trailer, the president of the United States, played by Meryl Streep, asks the incredulous pair: “Do you know how many ‘the world is ending’ meeting we’ve had over the last two years?”
“Drought, famine, hole in the ozone,” adds an aide, played by Jonah Hill. “It’s so boring.”
The film marks McKay’s return to comedy after the (mostly) dramatic Dick Cheney biopic Vice and the financial-collapse drama The Big Short. Those were dramas with a great feel for absurdity. Don’t Look Up is a satire of our modern age, where lots of people suffer science fatigue and a seemingly endless barrage of grim predictions for our world.
McKay said in a recent interview with MovieMaker that the film is partly a response to the frustrations of trying to navigate a flood of news, misinformation and social media white noise.
“In fairness to people, we’re dealing with an explosion of media — social media interconnectedness — that I don’t think any of us ever could have imagined. It’s creating new types of communities. It’s creating new types of exchanges that have never existed in the history of Homo sapiens ever. So we we definitely are confused. We’re definitely angry. This happens to coincide in the U.S. with a time where your average citizen has never had less power than right now. So it makes sense that the little bit of power we do have, which is to yell our opinions on social media, to get angry and outraged, would go down like that. So I understand why people fall into it,” McKay said on the podcast, which you can check out on Google, Apple or Spotify or here:
Don’t Look Up, coming to Netflix on Dec. 24, includes a huge A-list cast that includes Jennifer Hudson, Cate Blanchett, Timothee Chalomet and Ariana Grande, among others.
This is a busy time for McKay: He’s also an executive producer of Successsion, returning to HBO next month, and is working on a series about the Showtime-era Los Angeles Lakers.
Main image: Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence in Don’t Look Up.
What does Todd Phillips’ 2009 hit comedy The Hangover have in common with The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, a 1947 movie about a man’s wild night out that ended the career of silent film star Harold Lloyd?
On the latest episode of The Industry podcast, host Dan Delgado delves into the history of The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, an ill-fated picture written and directed by Preston Sturges that saw the end of a short-lived business partnership between Lloyd and billionaire philanthropist Howard Hughes.
It also shares some striking similarities with The Hangover. You can listen to this episode of The Industry podcast on Spotify, Apple, or above.
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock was produced by both Hughes and Sturges through their production banner California Pictures, which they formed together in 1944. But the movie would bring about the end of their friendship and business partnership when they realized they couldn’t see eye-to-eye about its comedic tone.
After its premiere in 1947, Hughes pulled it from release and decided to make several edits and re-shoot some scenes, re-releasing a new version in 1950 with the title Mad Wednesday. It flopped. Lloyd never made another movie, marking the end of a long and mostly successful career which included dozens of popular silent films and “talkies” from as far back as 1913.
Tom Sturges, the son of director Preston Sturges, said the first time he saw The Hangover he was immediately struck by all it had in common with Diddlebock.
“A brilliant film. Hilarious. But if you look deep into its DNA, you go, ‘Wow, this is so similar.’ Harold Lloyd wakes up to a lion, and he bought a circus — tell me two other movies where a guy wakes up with a lion in the next room or a tiger,” Sturges said. “It doesn’t happen… those are the only two. So, when I saw The Hangover and I loved it and laughed my ass off, I went, ‘This is the hidden twin sister of The Sin of Harold Diddlebock.”
Delgado spelled out all the similarities between the two films.
“While they are definitely very different pictures, in The Hangover, three guys get presumably blackout drunk and wake up in a Las Vegas hotel with a tiger in it, having no memory of the previous night, and have to retrace their steps in order to find their missing friend. Oh, and in the process, one of them discovers that he got married,” Delgado said. “In Diddlebock, Harold gets blackout drunk and wakes up with a lion in his house, having no memory of the previous night. He deals with the consequences of his drunken behavior, which includes a circus that he bought. Oh, and in the process, he also discovers that he got married.”
Reps for the writers of the first Hangover movie did not immediately respond to MovieMaker‘s request for comment about whether Diddlebock was an influence.
A Justice League giveaway; the story of silent film icon Harold Lloyd’s last role, The Matrix: Resurrections trailer goes down the rabbit hole, and Adam McKay enlists Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence to warn that the end is near. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.
But First: We will not have a Rundown tomorrow, because of some things.
Enter to Win: To mark the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League on 4K Ultra HD, we have ten to give away. But you have to be signed up for this newsletter you’re reading for a chance to win. If you’re already signed up, thanks! Why not get someone in your household to sign up, so you can watch Justice League together?
What Things Though: Just, you know, personal things. Everything’s fine.
Harold Lloyd’s Last Movie: In the latest episode of The Industry, host Dan Delgado tells the story of silent film and “talkie” star Harold Lloyd’s final film — a comedy that bears amusing similarities to 2009’s The Hangover. This is a story that includes Howard Hughes, a secret tunnel to the Chateau Marmont, and much more. You can listen on Spotify, Apple, or here:
The Matrix: Resurrections Trailer: I have zero insights here (I can’t even remember which pill does what) but this trailer makes me want to see a movie I didn’t have much interest in before. It seems to step outside Matrix lore and have some fun with it, the way Nightmare on Elm Street 7 went all meta. Everyone remembers Nightmare on Elm Street 7, right? Wes Craven’s New Nightmare? Anyway here’s The Matrix: Resurrections trailer:
Where’s Laurence Fishburne? Is a thing many people on social media are asking. I’m sure one way or another, everything will be fine.
“Things”: Exactly.
Also, Wow: This shot right here.
White Rabbit: One of my favorite things about the Matrix: Resurrections trailer is that I never, ever, ever wanted to hear the Jefferson Airplane’s melodramatic “White Rabbit” ever again, but it works wonderfully in the context of the film’s San Francisco setting and our current vulnerability to internet rabbit holes, which feels very Matrix. The most newly resonant line: “When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead.” And of course the lines about the pills.
Speaking of Logic and Proportion Falling Sloppy Dead: The new Adam McKay film Don’t Look Up, out on Netflix on Dec. 24, stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as scientists trying to convince the world that a comet is coming to kill us all — and finding everyone has information fatigue. In a scene set in the White House, they warn the president (Meryl Streep) of the danger. “Do you know how many ‘the world is ending’ meeting we’ve had over the last two years?” she asks. An aide played by Jonah Hill chimes in: “Drought, famine, hole in the ozone. It’s so boring.” The cast includes Cate Blanchett, Ariana Grande, Timothee Chalomet, Tyler Perry and many more. Here you go:
Are You Going Somewhere Or Something?: I’ll be near Boston, Massachusetts, where Don’t Look Up was filmed. You can hear more about that from Adam McKay right here.
Attica: Indiewire has this interview with director Stanley Nelson, whose new film Attica marks the 50th anniversary of a bloody prison uprising that left 29 inmates and 10 hostages dead. The film premieres today at the Toronto International Film Festival and will air on Showtime. “Attica is a story that’s evergreen,” Nelson tells IndieWire. “We could have made the film at any time and the conversations would be the same, on mass incaceration, racial implications, and the need for reform. But it was good to look back at it 50 years later, and with new knowledge never released before.” Attica has also been the subject of past docs, and the very intense 1994 John Frankenheimer drama Against the Wall, with Kyle MacLachan, Samuel L. Jackson, and the late Clarence Williams III. And it was the subject of a 1980 TV movie starring Morgan Freeman.
Will You Be Back?: Of course! We love you very much and will be back with a new Rundown on Monday.
Have a Great Weekend and Be Careful Out There: I’ve shared this before, but here’s a scene from the jaw-dropping 1923 Harold Lloyd silent film “Safety Last.”
Main image: Keanu Reeves surrounded by new subscribers to the Rundown in The Matrix: Resurrection, learning that they have won Zack Snyder’s Justice Leagueon 4K Ultra HD.
The Voyeurs writer-director Michael Mohan understands the term “erotic thriller” reads as dated. And while he holds a lot of love for the genre which peaked in the ’90s, his latest thriller is not some stale homage to a forgotten era.
“Every movie is a product of its time,” Mohan tells MovieMaker. “Even though in my mind, I’m bringing this genre back and there is something of a throwback, just the fact that I’m saying the word ‘erotic thriller,’ there’s something dated about saying that. But I didn’t want the movie to feel dated.”
To Mohan, it’s important to distinguish between the different subgenres that make up this category of film.
“You’ve got movies like Body Heat and Wild Things that are these sweaty neo-noirs,” Mohan says. “And then you have ‘[blank] from Hell’ movies, like ‘the Nanny from Hell’ in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.”
But there is another subgenre, which Mohan calls “steamy moral dilemmas,” which include Adrian Lyne films like Unfaithful and Indecent Proposal, that Mohan hopes The Voyeurs will join.
“What I love about those movies is that you’re going to have an opinion on whether or not the character made the right decision. And the person next to you is going to have a completely different opinion, but will be just as passionate. And you get to have these fun arguments after the movie is over,” he says.
In The Voyeurs, Sydney Sweeney and Justice Smith’s characters, Pippa and Thomas, spy on their neighbors (played by Ben Hardy and Natasha Liu Bordizzo) — a couple who don’t seem to understand how blinds work. Mohan worked with cinematographer Elisha Christian (his roommate from film school) to subtly visualize the closing spaces between the two couples.
“What we wanted to achieve is that these apartments that are far apart felt like they were getting closer and closer together as the movie went on, but it was all motivated by story,” Mohan says.
“When they’re first looking over there, they’re just looking with their naked eye. So it has to be wide. It can’t go close, because she can’t see. The next night, when they look, we went just a teeny bit tighter on the lens. And then when they get the binoculars, that’s when we’re on that longer POV lens, and we stuck with it. And then as the movie went on, we would tighten up our lens further and further from there.”
Ben Hardy’s character, Seb, is watched through binoculars in The Voyeurs, written and directed by Michael Mohan. Photos courtesy of Amazon.
Pippa and Thomas not only watch, but also listen in on their two neighbors, with the aid of a nifty laser pointer trick. Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation is a big inspiration on The Voyeurs, and these audio elements play into that reference.
Mohan worked with sound designer Nathan Ruyle to subtly transition a bustling city soundscape into a more intimate drama as the story wears on.
“When the couple first moves in together, you’re hearing all the traffic, you’re hearing ambulances, you’re hearing construction all around them,” Mohan says. “But then as the movie goes on, and they’re focused more and more in on this couple across the way, the sound of the city melts away until that one fateful night where Pippa crosses the line — you can almost hear a pin drop.”
That moment is marked by one of those character decisions sure to get audiences debating. Without spoiling anything, the plot boils over in its final act with a number of twisty turns.
“The thing I love about about erotic thrillers is that the best ones go far off the rails in the third act. I knew I needed to go there here,” Mohan says. “I was OK with it pushing the boundaries of believability, because it was going to serve the allegory of the movie.”
The Voyeurs, written and directed by Michael Mohan, is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video. Main image (above): Sydney Sweeney and Justice Smith in The Voyeurs, from writer-director Michael Mohan.
Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11 is a documentary about how the comedy world tried to bring laughter back after the horror of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Airing on VICE TV, it includes interviews with David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, Marc Maron, Matthew Broderick, Aasif Mandvi, Rob Riggle, Nathan Lane, Gilbert Gottfried, Cedric the Entertainer, Chris Kattan, Lewis Black, Doug Stanhope, Jimmy Carr, Russell Peters and many more. In this piece, Emmy-nominated filmmaker Nick Fituri Scown explains how he and award-winning comedy journalist Julie Seabaugh took inspiration from Werner Herzog to make the film.
The only thing I love more than Werner Herzog the filmmaker is Werner Herzog the motivational speaker. Back when I was an undergrad in college, he visited our directing class and gave one of the most inspiring lectures I’ve ever heard. The one idea that really struck a chord with me was about the power of telling someone that you’re making a movie. Not, “I’ve got this idea I’m thinking about” but, “I’m making this project. It’s happening one way or the other. You want in?”
So when my co-director, Julie Seabaugh, and I first started discussing Too Soon, and she asked how we, two first-time documentary filmmakers, could even start a project like this, I told her about wise ole Werner’s theory, and how I thought we should test it. We wouldn’t tell folks that we were thinking of doing a documentary about comedy after 9/11: We would announce to the world that we were making it.
Story continues after the trailer for Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11, by Nick Fituri Scown and Julie Seabaugh:
Of course it’s very hard to make a documentary without any camera equipment… or audio gear… or an editing system… or footage. But we were not going to let such trivial things stand in our way. So we did the one thing we could at that moment — research. We scoured the internet for any archival interviews or clips that we could use to make a sample reel of what we wanted to examine in the film, the idea of Tragedy + Time = Comedy.
Thanks to Julie’s background and connections from being a comedy journalist, we were able to get a pitch meeting with a cable channel specializing in comedy. The people there liked the idea and reel, but they weren’t ready to hop on board.
That left us with a choice. We could take our reel around town, polish our pitch and wait to see if anyone else would help us — or we could just continue making the documentary. The entire movie. Just the two of us.
Which to be honest, was pretty terrifying, but hell, Werner Herzog said he stole a camera to make one of his first films, so…
We borrowed equipment, and didn’t steal anything… though I may have perhaps lied a little to get press credentials to the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, where we went to begin filming our documentary. Julie showed the reel to some of the folks she knew in the comedy world, and that was enough to get Todd Barry and some other comics to commit to interviews. We not only got some great footage on tape, but could now see how this was going to be more than just a good idea — it would be a good movie.
Cedric the Entertainer in Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11, courtesy of Vice TV.
Inspired by what we’d got on our first shoot, we started shooting interviews with comics in L.A. on our lunch and dinner breaks from work. I would secretly cut our footage when the AVIDs at my job weren’t otherwise in use. After trading in our miles and hotel points to go film in New York, we had enough material to update and improve our reel. That got us more pitch meetings (not buyers, unfortunately) — but more importantly, it got us more interviews, as other comics could see who else was in the film and what the tone of it was. This wasn’t going to be just a series of tasteless jokes, but a respectful examination of that harrowing time, told from the POV of entertainers who weren’t sure what their place in the world was going to be after such a tragedy.
Over the course of the next year-and-a-half we compiled enough interviews to flesh out some of the major story points, particularly The Onion’s 9/11 issue and the rise of the Arab comics who formed The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour. Now people could see the narrative arc of our film play out with their own eyes; the world before 9/11, the terror of witnessing the attacks, and the feeling that the world had changed. No one knew what comedy’s place would be, but eventually entertainers realized that they needed to talk about the trauma we had all experienced. By doing so they helped us all mend.
Through making the film we’d discovered that the true equation we were examining wasn’t Tragedy + Time = Comedy, but T+T+C = Healing.
Werner’s theory was proving true. The more we made the film, the more momentum we gained. The more interviews we filmed, the more other entertainers were interested in sitting down with us. The more we edited the film, the more people could see what the film would be, which led to Julie winning a grant from Women Making A Scene that we used to finally get our own editing system, which let us start editing a rough cut of the film.
Over the course of four years, Julie and I had now built enough momentum on our own that people were ready to hop on board. The first to join the Too Soon train was Dan Baglio of Pulse Films. He had worked with Sean Hayes and Todd Millner’s production company, Hazy Mills, in making The History of Comedy for CNN. Since Julie and I already had a rough cut of the film, it was very easy for us to cut a new reel and build a pitch deck.
David Cross in Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11, courtesy of Too Soon Productions
Since we had spent so much time making the film, Julie and I were confident we could talk anyone through the story and answer any questions they had. Which we did for a lot of great distributors, but there was one in particular that stuck out to us. When we met with VICE, the people there were the first ones who didn’t want to waste time with us pitching them the story of the film. They just wanted to know how they could help us make it. These were our kind of people.
Now, after five years, we’re happy to say that we are no longer making Too Soon, because it’s been made. It’s done. It’s being released by ViceTV for all the world to see.
So, if there’s a movie you’ve been dreaming about for a long time, something you believe the world needs to see, that will help entertain, educate, or enlighten people. Then listen to Werner: Stop thinking about it and start making it.
Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11 is now airing on VICE TV. It will also screen at the Dances With Films Festival on Saturday, Sept. 11, at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theater.
Main image: Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11 moviemakers Nick Fituri Scown and Julie Seabaugh, courtesy of Too Soon Productions.
