Noah Hawley, creator of FX’s excellent “Fargo,” has had his feature directorial debut “Lucy in the Sky” go from contender to pretender in just a matter of a few weeks. The upcoming sci-fi/drama from Hawley was supposed to be a big player this year at fall festivals, but after Toronto, Venice and New York announced their festival slates, it was still missing in action, nowhere to be found.
Fox Searchlight did announce today that “Lucy in the Sky” was getting a prime fall release date of October 4th. Does that mean a TIFF or Telluride announcement is imminent? It’s no secret that TIFF accepts just about every fall Hollywood release that is offered to them. Let us all remember that last year they had “Life Itself,” “Jeremiah terminator LeRoy,” “A Million Little Pieces” and “Outlaw King.” ‘Lucy’ could easily be accepted and have a TIFF world premiere if it wanted to, no matter the quality. The fact that it’s not even at TIFF tells me it was just not submitted or will be announced as a late title.
I have made it no secret in my belief that ‘Lucy’ is the the kind of film that is very hard to market. From what I’ve heard, Hawley mixes personal drama and sci-fi in very unique ways here, but he looks to bring the dark, almost miraculous spell of his writing to the big screen this year by telling the unconventional and true story of NASA Captain Lisa Nowak. Nowak made headlines in 2007 by driving from Houston to Orlando, with a knife and a BB gun, to confront former lover and fellow astronaut, Bill Oefelein, and his new girlfriend. The synopsis of “Lucy in the Sky” is said to be loosely based on Nowak’s story, who “after returning to earth from a life-changing mission in space, begins to slowly unravel and lose touch with reality.”
“The movie is locked,” Hawley told IndieWire earlier this summer. “I’m mixing right now, and I’m doing the final finishing touches. The studio has their strategy that they’re building toward a release, and it’s Searchlight, so unlike Disney, which dates their movies three years in advance, they’re quite used to going out [to festivals]. And all those festivals that are in anticipation of fall are starting to look at movies now, so we’re going through that process to figure out the best strategy to release it.”
Natalie Portman, Dan Stevens, Jon Hamm, Zazie Beetz all star in the film. “Lucy in the Sky” is now scheduled to arrive in theaters on October 4.