With a cast list that includes Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, and Timothée Chalamet, you may expect the upcoming film “Don’t Look Up” to be a prestige drama that is clearly setting its sights on awards season dominance. However, as Adam McKay recently explained to Insider, his upcoming Netflix film, “Don’t Look Up,” isn’t a drama. Not even close. In fact, it’s a comedy, or more appropriately, a “hard funny satire.”
In “Don’t Look Up,” McKay is set to tell the story of two low-level scientists that make the discovery that the world is going to be hit by a devastating, extinction-grade meteor. And to help spread the word, these scientists go on a media blitz to try to draw attention to the impending doom. Sure, that doesn’t sound hilarious, but McKay swears it will be.
“I don’t think it’s a ‘Step Brothers‘-type of comedy,” McKay said. “I would compare it more to somewhere between the Mike Judge stuff and ‘Wag the Dog.’ A hard funny satire is what we’re going for.”
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So, why the change of tone? After breaking through with massive comedies like the aforementioned “Step Brothers,” as well as “Anchorman,” McKay has tackled more serious subjects in films like “The Big Short” and his most recent film, “Vice.” Well, it appears that his work on more serious fare has pushed him back into the realm of comedy.
“I needed to laugh because [‘Vice’] was the bleakest thing I’ve ever worked on,” he explained. “I think, God almighty do we need laughter right now. It’s the only way I’m getting through this. You just have to laugh at the cravenness of not just Trump but the Republican party. And I’m also going to say the ineptness of the Democrats and the weakness of them, which I think shines through nicely in ‘537 Votes.'”
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Of course, “537 Votes” is the upcoming HBO documentary that McKay produced that tackles the fallout of the 2000 Presidential election and how it was decided by a small number of ballots. The film is directed by veteran doc filmmaker Billy Corben.
It’s still unclear when we might see “Don’t Look Up” arrive on Netflix. The film is likely going to begin sometime in early 2021, after DiCaprio and the rest of the cast finishes their other projects. And if that’s the case, there’s the chance we could see this all-star affair just in time for next year’s awards season because you can’t have a film with that many massively talented actors without some sort of Oscar buzz.