What we know about Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up,” his upcoming return to comedy, is that it’s the story of two low-level astronauts who must go on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching asteroid that will destroy Earth.
It sounds politically-charged and it probably will be. McKay told Rolling Stone earlier in the year that his film was set to tackle a global catastrophe and a bumbling U.S. President who refuses to listen to his White House scientists advice McKay has decided to bring in an all-star cast with him in the process, I have, honestly, never seen a better and more talented cast assembled for a movie. Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Timothee Chalamet, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, and Jonah Hill will be part of this Netflix endeavor.
This is being billed as McKay’s return to comedy, after the dramatic sparks of “The Big Short” and “Vice.” If you remember, McKay and Will Ferrell were the bad boys of frat comedy back in the early aughts, a director/actor team responsible for the likes of “Anchorman,” “Step Brothers” and “Talladega Nights.”
Production on “Don’t Look Up” was set to begin in April and stream via Netflix by late/December 2020, but that’s obviously all changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down almost every production in the business. The movie is scheduled to start filming before the end of the year.
Gyllenhaal says women face systemic barriers in an industry that may not value the kinds of films they want to make. Roy Price’s response? Watch “The Bride.”