Hollywood’s blockbuster tentpoles, brace yourselves—Armando Iannucci is on his way.
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| Jessica Hynes, Daniel Brühl, Isaac Powell, Aya Cash, Himesh Patel, Lolly Adefope in 'The Franchise.' Colin Hutton/HBO |
The creator of Veep and Avenue 5 has teamed up with Succession and Veep writer Jon Brown, crashing from the worlds of media, politics, and outer space right into the heart of a superhero movie set in their new satirical series, The Franchise. A teaser trailer has just been released.
Sam Mendes (Skyfall, American Beauty) takes on the role of director and executive producer, working alongside Iannucci (The Thick of It, The Death of Stalin) and Brown, with Brown serving as showrunner.
“Everything’s exploding at a million miles an hour, and the movie is a scrotum resting on a razor’s edge,” Himesh Patel declares, setting the tone in the trailer. Patel portrays the director of an unloved franchise movie, desperately “fighting for its place in a savage and unruly cinematic universe.”
According to the logline, “The comedy series reveals the hidden chaos of superhero moviemaking, exploring the question—how exactly is the cinematic sausage made? Because every screw-up has an origin story.”
The cast also includes Aya Cash, Jessica Hynes, Billy Magnussen, Lolly Adefope, Darren Goldstein, and Isaac Powell, with Richard E. Grant and Daniel Brühl making recurring guest appearances.
“I’ve eaten a lot of shit for this money—a Subway footlong bit of turds,” Brühl quips at one point.
The Franchise premieres Sunday, Oct. 6, at 10 p.m. on HBO and streams on Max, with new episodes released weekly.
Mendes, Pippa Harris, Nicolas Brown, and Julie Pastor are executive producers for Neal Street Productions, with Iannucci for Dundee Productions, alongside Brown and Jim Kleverweis. The pilot was directed by Mendes and written by Brown.
