Clear your schedules, because the most interesting film to head our way in 2016 just got more interesting. Sure, we’re all on the edge of our seats, wanting to see the next huge offerings from the DC and Marvel stables – but what if there was something happening that was so original, so exciting and so promising, that it actually presented itself as a viable alternative to all that comic book fare? Well, here it is: The Bad Batch.
Last year, Ana Lily Amirpour was the talk of the festival circuit, with her feature film debut A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. The award-winning Iranian vampire film set tongues wagging at Sundance and, very quickly, the British-born Iranian-American writer-director was defying the Hollywood odds and lining up her next high profile project – a feat that is sadly still a rarity for directors that are also female.
Most recently, Amirpour described the project to The Film Society back in 2014.
“My next script is called The Bad Batch. It’s a cannibal love story set in a post-apocalyptic Texan wasteland. There’s going to be muscle men and amputees set against a desert backdrop. I want to shoot anamorphic colour and a have a look and feel of the 80s and 90s with an eclectic soundtrack that’s part techno, part western and part 90s pop. It’s my Mad Max meets Gummo. It’s going to be really weird and romantic and also very violent.”
Frankly, she had me at “cannibal love story set in a post-apocalyptic Texan wasteland,” but the excitement doesn’t end there. In addition to being written and directed by this talented filmmaker, The Bad Batch is being produced by Megan Ellison – the powerhouse behind films such as Zero Dark Thirty, Her, American Hustle and Foxcatcher – and now, Amirpour has done some mind-blowing casting.
Diego Luna (Milk, Elysium, The Book Of Life) will star as ‘Jimmy’, Suki Waterhouse (Insurgent) will appear as ‘Arlen’, and Yolonda Ross (I’m Not There, Happyish) is also cast in an as-yet unspecified role. Furthermore, Jason Momoa (Aquaman in Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice) is confirmed in the role of Miami Man, while Keanu Reeves will star as The Dream, and Jim Carrey will star as The Hermit.
Yes, you read that right. Jason Momoa, Keanu Reeves and Jim Carrey are about to share the screen in a post-apocalyptic Texan cannibal love story that is written, directed and produced by women. It’s almost as if cinema were created specifically to bring us this exact project, with this exact cast and crew. Of the many exciting films due in 2016, The Bad Batch is proof that patience is a virtue – and we will be keeping a close eye on production when cameras begin to roll in April.
