Earlier this month, the first trailer for Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s “Birdman” dropped and it was kind of bonkers awesome. But what on Earth is it about? “It’s less about a guy who played a superhero in big hit movies than it is about exploring the human soul and psyche, and also where we are as a society today and how much importance we place on those kinds of things,” the film’s star Michael Keaton told EW. So certainly, not your average comedy or drama by stretch, but the firepower behind the movie is undeniable.
Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Ryan, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough and Naomi Watts are among the ensemble for this already pretty wild looking tale, but could there be one more trick up the sleeve of Iñárritu we haven’t heard of just yet? Bear with us a moment. Last fall, “Gravity” director and Iñárritu pal Alfonso Cuarón told Capture Mag, “Next year, you’ll see a film shot in one continuous sequence-shot and it’s a masterpiece.” Then, this spring over at Redditian, a user claimed “the cinematography is done by Emmanuel Lubezki and the entire film is going to be one continuous shot like ‘Rope‘. SOURCE: I worked on it.” That’s not all.
This dude says he’s seen an early cut of the movie and says it has “an awe inspiring 40 minute tracking shot.”
So, what to make of all this? Well, there’s no official word about anything on the visual end of the movie, and before you say ZOMG SINGLE TRACKING SHOT MOVIE cool your jets, because—again, if this is accurate, and that’s a big maybe—it’s at best constructed to look that way, like Alfred Hitchcock did with the careful edits in the aforementioned “Rope.” And it should be said, that outside Cuarón, these are far from rock solid sources, so consider it pure speculation for the moment.
“Birdman” opens on October 17th. New images below.