ReportWire

Tag: Jesse Armstrong

  • Yorgos Lanthimos Jokes He Needs an AI Avatar to Get Out of Promoting His Films: “Do I Have to Say the Same Thing a Thousand Times?”

    [ad_1]

    Yorgos Lanthimos might be on board with AI, after all.

    The Oscar-nominated filmmaker, director of movies The Favourite, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, jokingly told BFI London Film Festival attendees on Saturday that he’s willing to send out a computer-generated avatar of himself if it helps him get out of promotional duties.

    Lanthimos spoke with Succession creator Jesse Armstrong the day after the U.K. premiere of his latest thriller, Bugonia, starring Emma Stone as a powerful CEO who is kidnapped by two conspiracy-obsessed men, played by Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis, convinced she is an alien about to destroy Earth.

    “I have mixed feelings about… figuring out what the best way to do it is, because [producers] spend a lot of money and they do have to make it back,” Lanthimos began when asked if he cares about the commercial success of his features. “It’s not my passion to go around being photographed and tell people stuff. It’s almost the same amount of time as making a film — you spend four to six months filming, six months editing and then you have, like, six months going around promoting the film.”

    He continued about the repetitive nature of a film’s press run: “Isn’t there another way? You sit down with your people and they say, [You need to do] this interview, this interview. Can’t you just take out some of them? Do I have to do all of them and say the same thing a thousand times? By the middle of the day, I won’t remember the things I’ve said. I’m looking at people like, ‘Did I tell you this?’” It’s a big part of it, I understand… But especially now with technology, you capture something and everyone has it! Why do I have to do it a million times?”

    As audience members erupted with laughter, the director joked, “I mean, AI… I’ll make an avatar and send it out. That sounds really opposite to my beliefs [about AI]!”

    Armstrong quipped back: “First you want a dictatorship and now you want an AI version of yourself to talk about your films.” The award-winning Brit writer was referring to earlier in the session when Lanthimos told Armstrong he believes the world needs a benevolent dictator to combat the far-right dominating the world’s current political landscape. “The way things are going, [we have] ones that are doing the bad things, but [we need] a dictator who does good things for the people.”

    Lanthimos clarified: “Because it seems like, whatever you call it, maybe the left, they haven’t found a way to do this. You need someone who will take responsibility and go: ‘We’re going to do the good things.’”

    Across the session, the men covered a myriad of topics including how Lanthimos made films in the wake of the 2008 financial crash — which hit Lanthimos’ native Greece particularly hard — and finding creative freedom in moving to the U.K. to make English-language films.

    Stone, in particular, is already garnering more awards buzz for Bugonia only two years after her Oscar win for Poor Things.

    The BFI London Film Festival 2025 runs Oct. 8-19.

    [ad_2]

    Lily Ford

    Source link

  • ‘Succession’ Creator Reveals Why Wild Finale Was The ‘Right Way’ To End Show [SPOILERS]

    ‘Succession’ Creator Reveals Why Wild Finale Was The ‘Right Way’ To End Show [SPOILERS]

    [ad_1]

    “Succession” spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned!

    It’s a wrap on “Succession” and the wild final episode of the Emmy-winning series gave fans a look at who is set to run Waystar Royco in the time ahead.

    Series creator Jesse Armstrong, in a Max (formerly HBO Max) “Controlling the Narrative” featurette, opened up about why he believes the “right ending” was to name Tom Wambsgans (played by Matthew Macfadyen) as Waystar Royco’s American CEO.

    “The idea of Tom being the eventual successor, that had been something that I thought was the right ending for quite a while now,” Armstrong said of the series finale, “With Open Eyes.”

    “Even though he’s not exactly the most powerful monarch you’ll ever meet – his power comes from Matsson. Those figures that drift upwards and make themselves amenable to powerful people are around.”

    Photograph by David Russell/HBO

    Armstrong, whose show debuted nearly five years ago, called it “very perverse” to end his series before explaining that the show’s final sequence would be the death of Logan Roy (played by Brian Cox) in season four, episode three; the debate over “whether to sell or not”; and Logan Roy’s funeral.

    “And once that became clear, I didn’t really have any doubts. I had lots of emotional sadness but it felt like ‘This is how the show goes,’” Armstrong explained.

    He added: “I don’t feel like I’ll be able to write anything as good as this again.”

    GoJo goes on to acquire Waystar Royco in the finale, too, after Shiv Roy (played by Sarah Snook) changes her mind and breaks a tie vote on the company’s sale in the boardroom, going against her brothers’ wishes.

    At the end of the episode, Kendall Roy (played by Jeremy Strong) is left shocked by the decision as he stares out at the water while the sun sets in front of him in New York City while Shiv Roy is seen holding hands with Tom in the back of a car and Roman Roy sits alone at a bar.

    Photograph by Courtesy of HBO

    Armstrong, in the featurette, explained that there isn’t an end to the Roy siblings’ stories.

    “They don’t end, they will carry on,” Armstrong said.

    “But it’s sort of where this show loses interest in them because they’ve lost what they wanted, which was to succeed — which, you know, was this prize that their father held out.”

    He added that Roman Roy “ends up exactly where he started,” Shiv Roy is “still in play “in a rather terrifying, frozen emotionally barren place” before spilling on what the finale means for Kendall Roy.

    “This will never stop being the central event of his life, the central days of his life, central couple of years of his life,” he said.

    “Maybe he could go on and start a company or do a thing. But the chances of him achieving the sort of corporate status that his dad achieved are very low and I think that will mark his whole life.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 5 Questions To Consider As You Get Ready For The ‘Succession’ Finale

    5 Questions To Consider As You Get Ready For The ‘Succession’ Finale

    [ad_1]

    By ANDREW DeMILLO, The Associated Press.
    Published:
    Last updated:

    There’s no Iron Throne, but the stakes feel just as high.

    “Succession”, the critically acclaimed drama chronicling a Murdoch-esque feuding billionaire family, wraps its four-season run on Sunday May 28 with a highly anticipated 88-minute finale.

    And just like another tentpole HBO show, “Game of Thrones”, there’s no shortage of theories over how the series will end and who will prevail. But instead of a throne, the Roy siblings are battling over the sprawling Waystar Royco media empire.

    The Shakespearean-level intrigue has prompted speculation among fans looking for clues in past episodes, characters’ names and elsewhere. Even the final episode’s title, “With Open Eyes”, has critics poring through the John Berryman poem that has been used for each season finale’s title.

    Here are some of the questions that remain as the finale nears.

    WHERE DO THINGS STAND WITH THE ROY FAMILY?

    “Succession” has been about who will ultimately run the media conglomerate founded by Logan Roy, the belligerent and profane Roy family patriarch played by Brian Cox.

    For most of the series, three siblings have been vying for the crown: Kendall, played by Jeremy Strong; Roman, played by Kieran Culkin; and Shiv, played by Sarah Snook. A fourth sibling — Connor, played by Alan Ruck — instead mounted an ill-fated run for president.

    By the end of season three, the siblings had buried their differences enough to attempt a corporate coup of their father — only to be betrayed by Shiv’s husband Tom Wambsgans, played by Matthew Macfadyen.

    Brian Cox in ‘Succession’
    — Photograph by Macall B. Polay/HBO

    The series’ most shocking twist came early this season, when Logan died on his way to close a deal with GoJo, a tech company.

    Logan’s death and the power vacuum it created have led to renewed struggle among the siblings, with Kendall and Roman hoping to block the GoJo deal.


    READ MORE:
    ‘Succession’ Directors Filmed Tense Fight Scene Without Knowing Shiv Was Pregnant

    WHO WILL PREVAIL?

    Show creator Jesse Armstrong told The New Yorker earlier this year “there’s a promise in the title of ‘Succession,’” a sign that there’ll be some certainty at least on this question.

    The finale could live up to Logan’s statement in season 3 that life is “a fight for a knife in the mud.”

    Kendall appeared in the penultimate episode to be on track to follow in his father’s footsteps, delivering an impromptu eulogy at Logan’s funeral after Roman was too grief-stricken to do so.

    Jeremy Strong as Kendall in “Succession”.
    Jeremy Strong as Kendall in “Succession”.
    — Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Media

    After aligning himself with the far-right presidential candidate Jeryd Mencken — who the Roys’ network questionably declared the winner — Roman’s fortunes appeared to be falling and was seen fighting with protesters in the streets in the final scenes.

    Shiv, meanwhile is still trying to shepherd the GoJo deal with a plan she’s concocted that would install her as the company’s chief executive in the United States.

    Connor, after losing every state and endorsing Mencken, is instead planning for his hoped-for ambassadorship.

    There are a few wild cards that remain, within and outside the Roy family. The biggest one of all is Greg, the cousin and fan favourite played by Nicholas Braun, known for his awkward quotes and verbal abuse he endures from Tom.


    READ MORE:
    ‘Succession’: Kendall Roy’s Manhattan Penthouse Hits The Market At $29 Million

    WHO WON THE ELECTION?

    All of this is happening with the backdrop of an unsettled U.S. election that may have been swung to Mencken (Justin Kirk) with the help of the Roys’ cable network and a seemingly not-coincidental fire at a vote centre in a swing state.

    Justin Kirk as Jeryd Mencken in “Succession”.
    Justin Kirk as Jeryd Mencken in “Succession”.
    — Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Media

    The scenario and the series’ Election Night episode has echoed the conversations revealed among Fox News executives and talent during the defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems that led to a nearly $800 million settlement with the network.

    “Succession’s” fictional election results have both professional and personal implications for the Roy family, with protests over Mencken erupting throughout the city. But even Shiv seems willing to put her moral qualms aside at the prospect of making a deal with Mencken.

    WHAT ABOUT TOM AND SHIV?

    Tom and Shiv’s marriage had been on shaky ground before he betrayed her to Logan at the end of last season.

    This season it’s even more so, with the two holding a no-holds-barred argument at a pre-election party where the two traded grievances and insults.

    Shiv’s revelation to Tom on Election Night that she’s pregnant prompted one of the most gut-wrenching responses, with Tom asking her whether she was telling the truth or just using a new tactic against him.

    The show continues to offer some signs of affection between the two, with Shiv telling an exhausted Tom to sleep at her apartment after the funeral, but it remains to be seen whether their marriage is salvageable.


    READ MORE:
    Kieran Culkin Clears Up Confusion About Roman’s Wife And Child In ‘Succession’

    IS THIS REALLY THE END?

    There are plenty of examples of shows that lived on after their finales. “Game of Thrones” spawned a popular prequel series, “House of the Dragon”, while “Seinfeld” got a second try on its much-maligned finale on “Curb Your Enthusiasm”.

    Even “The Sopranos”, known for one of the buzziest finales of all time, came back with a movie looking at Tony Soprano’s beginning.

    Armstrong has left open revisiting his characters in another fashion, and the possibilities for doing so are endless. A Tom and Greg buddy comedy? Or maybe a Logan Roy origin story, just to reveal the first time he said his signature vulgar phrase.

    [ad_2]

    Melissa Romualdi

    Source link

  • Cameron Frye and Connor Roy: “My Old Man Pushes Me Around” No More!

    Cameron Frye and Connor Roy: “My Old Man Pushes Me Around” No More!

    [ad_1]

    Just as it is for the Roy family at large, for many viewers of Succession, Connor Roy (Alan Ruck) is pure background. It hasn’t really been until season four that he’s been permitted his moment to shine. To “take a stand,” as Ruck’s most famous character, Cameron Frye, would say. And it starts with episode two, “Rehearsal,” in which he displays the full extent of his vulnerability during a karaoke session. Not just because he opts to sing Leonard Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat” but because, just as he did in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off as Cameron, he decides to take a stand and defend it. And yes, singing Leonard Cohen at karaoke (even if only in a room as opposed to a more public stage) definitely counts among the ranks of taking a stand and defending it (regardless of Roman [Kieran Culkin] jibing, “This is Guantanamo-level shit”).

    It’s no coincidence that he should choose that particular song, either. Not with Cohen singing, “I hear that you’re building your little house deep in the desert/You’re living for nothing now, I hope you’re keeping some kind of record.” Lest one needs to be reminded, the early seasons of Succession find Connor living alone in the desert of New Mexico in his palatial palace. A cold place in a hot climate, where he still can’t seem to finagle something akin to love. Not even from his “girlfriend,” Willa (Justine Lupe), a call girl he pays to keep around. Eventually paying enough to make her want to be his full-time girlfriend. But back to the lyrics of “Famous Blue Raincoat,” also fitting for Connor’s sibling situation with the Cain and Abel allusion in the line, “And what can I tell you my brother, my killer?”

    Both Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman have no need of killing their half-bro, however—for he’s so irrelevant to their patriarch, Logan Roy (Brian Cox), that wasting any energy on him would be wasting much-needed focus on “securing the position.” CEO of Waystar-Royco. Something that was never going to belong to “hapless” Connor, who spent three years of his childhood without seeing his father at all. “Attachment” isn’t exactly a thing between him and Logan, nor is it between Cameron and Morris, who never appears once in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—merely looms large as a source of fear. Especially after Ferris (Matthew Broderick) gets Cam (“Con” also has a shortened version of his name) to take his dad’s Ferrari out for the day.

    Not one to be disagreeable, Cameron ultimately concedes to loaning out the car after several half-hearted attempts at protesting. Lying in bed genuinely sick (even if only in the head) as opposed to Ferris’ fake-out version of sickness, it’s clear Cam’s family doesn’t need to be played to in order for him to get out of school. They’re never around anyway. Least of all his father, off being the “provider” of the family, therefore excused from anything like involvement. Yes, it sounds a lot like Logan Roy. And Cameron, like Con, leads a privileged existence with the trade-off of never experiencing any emotional attachment or care whatsoever. With regard to “Con,” there’s one in every family, to be sure. Someone who never gets quite the same amount of attention or consideration. Whether because their personality is more demure or they don’t seem “special” enough to warrant as much care. Connor falls into both categories, with Shiv (Sarah Snook) in the Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) role and Kendall and Roman trading off on being the overly arrogant Ferris Bueller (Roman obviously being more Ferris-y than Ken). A scene of Cameron stuffed in the back of the Ferrari that Ferris and Sloane are effectively using him for speaks volumes vis-à-vis this dynamic. The only time anyone bothers with Con is when they need him for something…so basically they never much bother with him.

    Sure, he’s there for “ceremonious” events like birthdays and family vacations, but, by and large, he’s out of the fold. Until season four rolls around and, suddenly, the “Rebel Alliance” that is Shiv, Kendall and Roman ends up prompting Con to say, “This is how it is, huh? The battle royale? Me and dad on one side, you guys on the other.” This after Willa has walked out on their wedding rehearsal dinner, leaving Con with no one to “turn to” for “comfort” but his so-called family. The trio of his siblings (all of whom show up late because Logan cut off their helicopter access) amounts to one giant Ferris Bueller, the narcissist in the dynamic constantly taking up space and demanding more from the Cameron/Connor of the outfit. Meanwhile, all Connor is asking for is a round of karaoke at Maru, one of many overpriced options within the parameters of Koreatown’s 32nd Street.

    Upon arriving to said location (under duress for most of them), Connor is quick to admit that he told Logan where they are, and he’s coming over to “talk things out”—presumably the deal that Shiv, Kendall and Roman want to fuck by asking for more money of Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) in exchange for merging his streaming company, GoJo, with Waystar. In defense of himself, Connor replies to the sibling backlash, “My life isn’t filled with secrets like some people. And I want my father to be at my wedding.”

    To everyone’s surprise, though, Logan wants to make an “apology.” Or the closest he can get to one. But with all the hemming and hawing, Kendall is quick to redirect his father’s messaging by demanding, “What are you sorry for, Dad? Fucking ignoring Connor his whole life?” He later adds, “Having Connor’s mother locked up?” This being why Connor refers to the cake at his wedding as “loony cake.” A type of dessert he apparently associates with Victoria sponge cake and doesn’t care for at all because it was what was fed to him for a week after his mother was institutionalized. So yeah, even Kendall can take a moment here and there to stand up for his older brother and acknowledge that Con might have had a more emotionally bankrupt childhood than all of them.

    In that regard, his bid for normalcy is earnest when he declares to his brothers and sister, “I would like to sing one fucking song at karaoke because I’ve seen it in the movies and nobody ever wants to go.” Perhaps he saw it in a certain form in the movie that he co-starred in with Broderick, as the latter plays the titular character lip-syncing to Wayne Newton’s “Danke Schoen” and The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” on a parade float in the middle of Chicago. Something Cameron nor Connor would ever do. Possibly because attention-seeking is a type of love-seeking. And that’s never been either character’s “game.” Though both slowly start to realize that maybe it should be. Even as Connor notes something as heart-wrenching to his siblings as, “The good thing about having a family that doesn’t love you is you learn to live without it… You’re all chasin’ after Dad saying, ‘Oh love me, please love me. I need love, I need attention.’ You’re needy love sponges, and I’m a plant that grows on rocks and lives off insects that die inside of me. If Willa doesn’t come back, that’s fine. ‘Cause I don’t need love. It’s like a superpower.”

    Cameron Frye knows that’s not entirely true. It’s also a curse that causes severe anxiety and depression, finally pushing him toward the revelation, “I’m bullshit. I put up with everything. My old man pushes me around…I never say anything! Well he’s not the problem, I’m the problem [cue a lawsuit against Taylor Swift]. I gotta take a stand. I gotta take a stand against him. I am not gonna sit on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life. I’m gonna take a stand. I’m gonna defend it. Right or wrong, I’m gonna defend it.” Something Connor must decide to do in “Connor’s Wedding,” easily the most landmark episode of Succession ever aired. And yet, as usual, just because his name is in the title doesn’t mean he gets the theoretical spotlight. No, this is all about his father. Just as it always is. The same geos for Cameron and Morris, inciting the former to finally lose it and kick the shit out of the Ferrari as he screams, “I’m so sick of his shit. I can’t stand him and I hate this goddamn car! Who do ya love? Who do ya love? You love a car!”

    To this, Logan Roy might placate, “I love you…but you are not serious people.” These are his final sentiments directed at his children. Though no one is aware of it until the next day, when Logan’s heart fails (ironically appropriate) while on a private jet to negotiate the deal again with Matsson…thanks to his own kids painting him in a corner to do so. It was the previous night at karaoke that Logan understood the scope of his disgust with them. For here he is, the affluent, distant father figure (like Cameron’s) being unclear what more his children could “take” or want from him after everything he’s already given. Back out on the street with his latest “right-hand woman,” Kerry (Zoe Winters), he clocks a homeless man digging through the trash and seethes, “Look at this prick. They should get out here. Some cunt doing the tin cans for his supper, take a sip of that medicine. This city…the rats are as fat as skunks. They hardly care to run anymore.” Obviously taking a swipe at his lazy, greedy children. Except for Con, who really just wants it all to be over. Unfortunately, it’s only just getting started now that Logan is dead. And as usual, Con is the last to know about it, gently informed by Kendall only to instantly reply, “Oh man, he never even liked me,” trying to smooth that statement over with, “I never got the chance to make him proud of me.”

    Of course, that was never going to happen. Because there is no “pleasing” a man like Logan or Morris. And Connor always getting the short end of the stick from his father reaches a poetic peak with him dying on Connor’s wedding day, casting a dark, attention-stealing pall over the event. All Con can finally assess about it to Willa is: “My father’s dead and I feel old.” Cameron probably would have said the same thing. And he, too, probably would have soon after carried out his intended plans for the day. After all, he’s not one to let his old man push him around anymore, especially not now that he’s dead. He’s going to take a stand (for “love”) and defend it. Right or wrong.

    That’s why, in the end, he goes through with the wedding, not bothering to join his three half-siblings as they go to deal with their father’s body and make a statement to the press. In this sense, Connor has always been the freest, learning long ago not to bother chasing down the love of a patriarch who was incapable of it. Perhaps learning that from the person he was in another life: Cameron Frye. Meanwhile, Connor’s siblings will continue to volley for Logan’s invisible favor in not-so-subtle ways even after he’s gone.

    [ad_2]

    Genna Rivieccio

    Source link