Alfonso Cuarón’s Apple TV+ Show ‘Disclaimer’ & Joe Wright’s ‘M. Son Of The Century’ Head To Venice In Sizzling Series Selection
Alfonso Cuarón’s Apple TV+ Series Disclaimer, based on Renée Knight’s bestselling novel, will world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
The show is among four titles announced by Venice on Tuesday as selected in a sizzling Out of Competition – Series line-up alongside Joe Wright’s M. Son Of The Century, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The New Years and Thomas Vinterberg’s Families Like Ours.
Venice Artistic Director Alberto Barbera said their inclusion in the program was part of a larger reflection on “a transformation” taking place around the length of “cinematic” works.
Related Stories
“Alongside the rise of short films, produced for social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube in particular, more and more film directors are drawn to the possibility of experimenting with the longer lengths offered by cinematographic series,” he said.
RELATED: Conflict, Cuts And Identity Crises: How Film Festivals Are Navigating Choppy Waters
“The four we have chosen are proof of a stylistic and formal approach which maintains a strong cinematic stamp. You could say they are extremely long films, rather than TV series.”
He revealed the shows would be screened in their entirety.
RELATED: Venice Critics’ Week Unveils 39th Edition Line-Up Featuring Omnes Films’ ‘No Sleep Till’
“We’ll go from five and a half hours for one of the series to nearly eight hours for another. It will be a commitment for the spectators who decide to watching them here at the festival,” said Barbera.
“We felt it was important to do this experiment which is in keeping with the festival’s commitment to signal and anticipate significant changes within the field of the moving image.”
RELATED: ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ To Open Venice Film Festival 2024
Seven-episode drama Disclaimer is due to launch on Apple TV+ on October 11, with the first two episodes landing simultaneously and then a new episode dropping every week until November 15.
The psychological thriller features a star-studded cast headed by Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline and Sacha Baron Cohen and also featuring Lesley Manville, Louis Partridge, Leila George, Indira Varma and Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Blanchett stars as acclaimed journalist Catherine Ravenscroft who has built her career on unveiling the private transgressions of others. The tables are turned when she discovers a dark secret from her own life has been fictionalized in a novel by an unknown author.
RELATED: Isabelle Huppert Named As Jury President At 2024 Venice Film Festival
Five time Academy Award winner Cuarón wrote, directed and executive produced the series, which is his first directorial credit since his 2019 Best Picture Oscar winner Roma.
Wright’s Sky Original Series M. Son Of The Century is adapted from Italian writer Antonio Scurati’s eponymous best-seller chronicling the birth of fascism in Italy and Benito Mussolini’s rise to power.
Award-winning Italian actor Luca Marinelli plays Mussolini.
The eight-part series is produced by Sky Studios and Lorenzo Mieli for The Apartment, a Fremantle group company, in co-production with Pathé, in association with Small Forward Productions, in collaboration with Fremantle, Cinecittà and Sky.
The series will be launched exclusively on Sky in 2025, streaming only on NOW in all territories where Sky operates in Europe. Fremantle are handling international distribution.
RELATED: Peter Weir To Receive Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion For Lifetime Achievement
Families Like Ours marks Danish Cannes regular Thomas Vinterberg’s first series and first directorial credit since award-winning feature Another Round, which won the Best International Feature Film Oscar in 2021.
Set in a not-too-distant future, the drama follows the fortunes of high school student Laura, as rising water levels result in the entire population being evacuated, changing her life and that of her family forever.
The seven-episode has been made under the Creation Orignale Canal+ label and is lead produced by Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Kasper Dissing at Zentropa Entertainments in co-production with Studiocanal, Canal+, TV2 Denmark Ard Degeto and TV4.
Spanish director Sorogoyen, who made waves on the film festival circuit in 2022 with award-winning Cannes selection The Beasts, has long been oscillating between film and TV.
His most ambitious series to date, The New Years follows a couple’s 10-year relationship through the prism of what happens on consecutive New Year celebrations. It is co-produced by Spain’s Movistar Plus+ and Arte France.
RELATED: Alberto Barbera Renewed As Venice Film Festival Artistic Director For 2025 and 2026