The weekly box office results tell us: People love big franchises. Marvel, DC, Godzilla and Kong, that’s where the big box office these days.
Those folks might be interested in HBO’s new comedy, The Franchise, which is executive produced by Armando Iannucci, the guy behind The Thick Of It, In the Loop, and Veep. The series follows the making of what HBO describes as “an unloved franchise movie” — and based on how this movie looks in The Franchise’s trailer, it’s not hard to figure out why.
The cast of the show even includes two members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Daniel Bruhl, who plays the MCU’s Zemo from Captain America: Civil War and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Richard E. Grant, who was seen as Loki in Classic Loki. (Grant also has some experience in the Star Wars galaxy as well — and obviously they are extremely talented actors who have done much more interesting things in non-cinematic universes. But that history is certainly important in this context.)
Other key players include Himesh Patel, Aya Cash, Jessica Hynes, and Billy Magnussen. Check out the trailer below:
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The pilot for the show was directed by Sam Mendes, whose work includes American Beauty, Road to Perdition, and Skyfall. Here is the series’ official synopsis:
THE FRANCHISE follows the crew of an unloved franchise movie fighting for their place in a savage and unruly cinematic universe. The comedy series shines a light on the secret chaos inside the world of superhero moviemaking, to ask the question — how exactly does the cinematic sausage get made? Because every f—-up has an origin story.
The Franchise is scheduled to premiere on Sunday, October 6 at 10PM ET. It will also be streaming on Max.
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