HBO’s The Franchise Makes Superhero Moviemaking Look Super Silly — And That’s the Point, Says EP Sam Mendes
HBO’s The Franchise may forever alter the way you experience a big-budget, IP-driven movie, by revealing just how silly it can be to film such an overblown spectacle.
Premiering this Sunday, Oct.6 at 10/9c and counting two-time James Bond movie director Sam Mendes among its executive producers, The Franchise follows the crew of an unloved franchise movie — Tecto: Eye of the Storm — as they fight for their place “in a savage and unruly cinematic universe.”
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The series’ cast includes MCU vet Daniel Brühl as Eric, the struggling film’s director; Himesh Patel (Station Eleven) as Daniel, the first assistant director; Aya Cash (The Boys) as Anita, an ambitious producer/Daniel’s ex; Jessica Hynes (the UK’s W1A) as script supervisor Stephanie; Billy Magnussen (Made for Love) and Richard E. Grant (Loki) as Tecto stars Adam and Peter; Lolly Adefope (the UK’s Ghosts) as Dag, the third AD; Darren Goldstein (Ozark) as Maximum Studios chief Pat; and Isaac Powell (American Horror Story Seasons 10/11) as Bryson, a PA.
Showrunner Jon Brown, who previously created Dead Pixels and wrote for Succession, says that the idea for the moviemaking spoof came from Mendes and fellow EP Armando Iannucci (Veep), “based on Sam’s recollections of making Bond films.” Brown, meanwhile, was personally interested in surveying “where franchise movies are now, and the growing pains that they’re going through.
“Certain franchises have gone from sort of leading the audience and saying, ‘This is the movie that we’re going to make.’ But that relationship is now flipped, where they’re now in a position where they’re chasing after an audience,” Brown notes.
As chronicled by The Franchise, the making of Tecto: Eye of the Storm is almost exclusively an extremely silly enterprise, with “flying” heroes getting stuck in the rafters, extras trapped in intricate costumes requiring a diaper, and the none-too-small issue of the star being temporarily blinded. The hijinks come so steadily that you may suspect the HBO comedy is too far removed from that which it seeks to spoof.
But Mendes insists it is not.
“I think that if you were to see any of the movies made by Marvel and DC in the early days, on a green screen studio floor, you might think, ‘What are those people doing?! Why is that man carrying an enormous plastic hammer around, dressed in a breast plate on a green screen? Why is that schoolboy in a cape being suspended in midair on a broom stick chasing a small brass ball?’
“The world that they construct is astonishing,” Mendes acknowledges, but “I don’t think anyone would deny that but the actual process of making them is no less comic than what we portray here.” To wit, Mendes points out: “The biggest [superhero] of the lot is a guy who’s a bat. It’s ridiculous, but look at The Dark Knight,” which earned eight Academy Award nods and grabbed gold twice.
“I’ve certainly experienced a few versions of this myself in a more rooted, real world franchise which is Bond,” Mendes notes, “but I have great respect for people who do blue-screen and green-screen movies because it’s unbelievably difficult to sustain your energy and your imagination day in and day out when there’s nothing to look at except a flat screen and a few plastic rocks.”
Meaning, The Franchise‘s endgame (pun maybe intended) is “not as simple as just taking the piss out of superhero movies,” Mendes makes clear. Rather, it’s a look at “all of the people [on a cast and crew] who are struggling to make something good, as would be the case in any workplace environment. In the end, it’s a workplace comedy.”
Want scoop on The Franchise, or for any other TV show ? Email [email protected], and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!
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