Well there’s a first time for everything; and in the case of “The Curse,” it’s surprising that it’s the first TV series to be part of the premiere lineup for the New York Film Festival. But Variety reports that Nathan Fielder & Benny Safdie‘s show is the first to do so, and NYFF artistic director Dennis Lim couldn’t be happier about it.
“[Benny] was like, ‘Why don’t you take a look and see what you think?’” Lim said last night at the show’s world premiere at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. “So he sent me three episodes, I watched them right away and I said, ‘I need to see more.’ By the time I got to Episode 5 or 6, I called Benny and said ‘We need to figure out how to make this work.’” And soon enough, “The Curse” was set to premiere at NYFF.
“This is one of the most exciting things I’ve seen this year,” Lim continued before the series premiere. “Everything about “The Curse” screams cinema to me.” That’s hight praise for a TV show, but shouldn’t be too surprising for those involved on the Showtime series. Safdie and Fielder were in attendance last night for their show’s premiere, but not Emma Stone, who co-stars in the series with Fielder. The pair stars as a newly married couple that hosts a house-flipping TV show whose lives and careers get thrown upside down when a kid curses them in a staged photo op. Sound peculiar? Don’t be fooled, warns Lim. “It’s as brilliant, wild, perverse, embarrassing, uncomfortable and anxiety-inducing as you would expect,” Lim commented.
A co-production between Showtime & A24, “The Cruse” runs ten episodes and premieres on streaming and on-demand for Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers on November 10. And Film at Lincoln Center will also screen episodes 4-10 of the series during the show’s run. For those who can’t wait that long, the first episode kicks off with Stone and Fielder’s couple looking to flip houses into eco-friendly homes in Española, New Mexico, with Safdie in tow as their troubled show producer.
Again, the premise of “The Curse” may not sound that interesting on paper, but it’s the buzziest new TV series coming out this Fall. Watch a trailer for the show below to get a glimpse of what to expect.
