©Courtesy of Siberia, Saban Films
Keanu Reeves is reportedly being considered for the starring role in Ruben Östlund’s new film The Entertainment System is Down, which will likely begin shooting later this year.
Though plot details are still sketchy, Variety is reporting that the film will follow a planeload of passengers who must deal with “boredom and their own thoughts” as their in-flight entertainment system conks out. Östlund said that he was designing the movie to be a social satire that would focus on the “chaos and rages among passengers” in the aftermath of the technical meltdown.
As he told Variety, “So it’s going to be like a study of how human beings interact in this little laboratory that is a plane. It will look at how modern human beings are wrecked under these circumstances.”
Östlund told reporters that he wanted his new film to disturb audiences and even cause them to walk out. “I think it’s going to be more provocative than any violent, any disturbing content,” he was quoted as saying. “Because to be left alone with your thoughts and challenging the audience to do the same thing, then it’s going to be very interesting.”
Keanu Reeves recently played the leading character in John Wick: Chapter 4. In his next project, he will be voicing the animated character of Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, to be released this coming December. Reeves will also be playing the role of an angel in Aziz Ansari’s upcoming film Good Fortune. He’s also set to appear in Outcome, a dark comedy by Jonah Hill, and in Ballerina, where he will star opposite Ana de Armas.
Ruben Östlund served last year as Jury President for the 76th Cannes Film Festival. The 30-year-old Swedish-born director has won two Palmes d’Or at Cannes, for The Square and Triangle of Sadness. He hasn’t yet decided whether he will be making The Entertainment System is Down in his native Sweden, but he suggests that the film will have a globally diverse cast “because these long-haul flights always have international passengers.”
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