Five-time Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity” “Roma”), is inarguably one of the biggest filmmakers on the planet, and the writer/director can arguably make any movie he wants. But after 2019’s “Roma,” which won a trio of Academy Awards, including specifically three for Cuarón (Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Foreign Language Film), the acclaimed filmmaker decided to switch gears for his next project and attempt his hand at TV with the psychological revenge thriller “Disclaimer,” which is stars Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline.
Told in seven chapters, the limited series will make its global debut on Friday, October 11, 2024, with the first two episodes, followed by new episodes every Friday through November 15, 2024.
Several years in the making—the project was announced at the end of 2021—“Disclaimer” is based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Renée Knight and centers on a famed documentary journalist (Blanchett) who discovers she is a prominent character in a novel that reveals a secret she has tried to keep hidden for years.
The star-studded cast also features Sacha Baron Cohen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, HoYeon Jung, Louis Partridge, Lesley Manville, Indira Varma as the narrator and Leila George, who plays the younger version of Blanchett’s character Catherine Ravenscroft.
Cuarón wrote the screenplays and directed all episodes. The cinematography was split in two between his longtime DP collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki (“Birdman”) and Bruno Delbonnel (“Inside Llewyn Davis”).
Here’s the official synopsis:
Written and directed by five-time Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón, “Disclaimer” is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Renée Knight. Acclaimed journalist Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett) built her reputation revealing the misdeeds and transgressions of others. When she receives a novel from an unknown author, she is horrified to realize she is now the main character in a story that exposes her darkest secrets.
As Catherine races to uncover the writer’s true identity, she is forced to confront her past before it destroys both her own life and her relationships with her husband Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen) and their son Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee).
While maybe not about cancel culture exactly, “Disclaimer” seems to line up with some of the ideas in the Blanchett-starring “Tár” about public shaming, half-truths, disgrace and society’s need to punish people excessively. “It’s as old as humanity. We have an immense facility to create judgments,” Cuarón told Vanity Fair late last month. “But there’s a pleasure about it. You can see it nowadays in how easily people jump onto the bandwagon. That is a part of humanity that makes us feel a bit above, that makes us feel a bit more comfortable with ourselves. ‘There’s always someone that is a bit worse than me.’”
It’ll be fascinating to see how this topic is told over seven episodes. “Disclaimer” premieres October 11 on Apple TV+. Watch the first teaser trailer below.