A24 picks up the new film from Ruben Ostlund, the director of Triangle Of Sadness – and Kirsten Dunst and Keanu Reeves lead the cast.
We’d imagine that one of the most coveted projects to go to market at Cannes this week is Ruben Östlund’s follow-up to the critically celebrated 202 film, Triangle Of Sadness. It’s called The Entertainment System Is Down, it boasts a glorious premise, an admired director and a leading trio of Kirsten Dunst, Daniel Brühl and Keanu Reeves. Oh, and let’s not forget the giant plane that the production bought before it even found a studio backer.
Whilst studio backing of some sort was never really in doubt given the star power that Östlund has attached to the project, Östlund will likely be particularly happy to have A24 as a partner for the US rights, given that this looks to be one of the more ambitious arthouse to mainstream crossovers we’ve seen in a while. And when we say big, we mean big given that the production purchased a retired Boeing 747 for the film, which the director intends to sit on a studio backlot somewhere so he can use it to make his movie. Whether Östlund plans to use the jet to fly his cast and crew off on holidays somewhere nice afterwards, we have yet to confirm.
Like Triangle Of Sadness before it, The Entertainment System Is Down is a social satire, with events being ‘set on a long-haul flight where the entertainment systems fail, and an eclectic group of international passengers are forced to face the horror of being bored.’ The cast for the film continues to grow with Nicholas Braun and Samantha Morton having also joined the ensemble. Shooting is slated for 70 days although we don’t yet know when the production is set to begin.
However, we do know that the film isn’t expected to release until 2026 so you might want to dampen your enthusiasm a little as we have quite the wait for this one. The two-time Palme d’Or winner revealed that he expected to be back at Cannes at the 2026 festival to debut the film, so we’ve got a couple of years to go on this one yet. We’ll bring you more on The Entertainment System Is Down as we hear it.
