It’s one thing to talk about something, and another to do it, and it’s a lesson Francis Ford Coppola will soon be learning. For quite some time, the legendary filmmaker has been talking about “live cinema” as the wave of the future, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: a director filming a movie that is simultaneously broadcast to audiences. It’s not unlike what has been done on a smaller level on television, particularly recently with live TV productions of “Grease” and “A Few Good Men,” but while Coppola has been working out the technical hurdles of bringing such a project to life, Woody Harrelson is just going to go ahead and do it.
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Next month, the actor will make his feature directorial debut with “Lost In London,” and if that alone wasn’t enough, it’ll be filmed and broadcast simultaneously into cinemas. Harrelson, who wrote the movie, will also star alongside Owen Wilson and Willie Nelson, with the film running through fourteen locations, with thirty different cast members, and all being shot in one take. Jeez. It’s a massive undertaking, but the challenge seems to keep Harrelson buzzing.
“I had this idea 10 or more years ago. I love theater and I love film and I really wanted to figure out a way to merge the two. Then I thought this particular story does occur sequentially and cohesively, so I thought I’d like to shoot it in real time, like live cinema or whatever you’d call it,” he told EW, adding, “I guess a comparison might be ‘Saturday Night Live.’ That’s like doing live theater, though you have commercial breaks. But to do it 100 minutes in a row with no break? Yeah, it might be accurate to call this insanity.”
As for the plot, it’s inspired by a 2002 incident which saw Harrelson arrested in London after breaking an ashtray in a taxicab. “I’d say its a deep, soul-searching comedy. It’s about a guy who has it all and runs the risk of losing it all. And then hopefully ends up with this shot at redemption. I don’t wanna give away too much of what goes on in the plot,” Harrelson teased.
“Lost In London” will be lensed by Nigel Willoughby (“The Magdalene Sisters,” “Penny Dreadful,” “Downton Abbey“) and it sounds like it’s going to be quite the cinematic experience.
To check it out for yourself, “Lost In London” will screen in over 550 theaters on January 19, 2017 starting at 9 PM.