A24 is closing an eight-figure deal to acquire the U.S. rights to Ruben Östlund’s “The Entertainment System Is Down,” Variety has confirmed.
The deal was struck between A24 and Paris-based Co-Production Office, which launched international sales for the project at the Cannes Film Market.
Starring Kirsten Dunst, Keanu Reeves, Daniel Brühl, Nicholas Braun and Samantha Morton, “The Entertainment System Is Down” takes place on a long-haul flight where the entertainment system fails and passengers are forced to face the horror of being bored.
During a Cannes event hosted by Sweden’s Film i Väst on Saturday, two-time Palme d’Or winner Östlund unveiled more details about “The Entertainment System Is Down,” including that he and his producer, Erik Hemmendorff, purchased a real-life Boeing 747 for the film.
”We wanted to have a real airplane because very often, when you watch an airplane movie, characters are put in a corner, pretending to be on a big flight but we don’t really see it,” Östlund told the press. “It’s f—ing frustrating!”
”This time, when we will see the couple argueing, there will be like 300 people in that shot,” he said. “Then we will use the whole airplane, not just a section, so that we can walk from the cockpit all the way to the back, with a long tracking shot, we will get the feeling of being in this space.”
“The Entertainment System Is Down” will mark Östlund’s second English-language film and seventh feature after “The Guitar Mongoloid,” “Involuntary,” “Play,” “Force Majeure” and Palme d’Or winners “The Square” and “Triangle of Sadness.”
Deadline was first to report A24’s deal for “The Entertainment System Is Down.”
Source Agencies
