Crafting a compelling drama around the music industry has proven to be a difficult butterfly to pin for major studios – just ask Max Joesph and Zac Efron. But the underwhelming box office performance of We Are Your Friends has in no way dampened our interest in Owen Harris’ upcoming British drama, Kill Your Friends.
As the title suggests, this is a decidedly darker spin on the business, swapping out the glitz and glam of Hollywood for a British music industry at its prime. Buoyed by the genre-defining successes of bands such as Blur, The Stone Roses and Oasis, business was booming during the late 80s and early 90s, leading to an era of fame, fortune and gluttonous success.
Lifted from the pages of John Niven’s eponymous novel, Harris’ feature stars Mad Max: Fury Road alum Nicholas Hoult as A&R man (artists and repertoire) Steven Stelfox, who revels in the dog-eat-dog nature of the time. Having directed Secret Diary of a Call Girl along with a handful of Black Mirror episodes, we’re excited to see what Harris brings to the table, and today’s new trailer is simply oozing with a dark style that we can’t take our eyes off.
Part American Psycho, part Trainspotting, Owen Harris’ Kill Your Friends is expected to make its bow in the early stages of 2016.
When the road to success is littered with losers and even your closest colleagues are desperate for you to fail, what would you do to make it to the top? London, 1997; the British music industry is on a winning streak. Britpop bands Blur, Oasis, Radiohead rule the airwaves and Cool Britannia is in full swing. 27-year-old hit chasing A&R man Steven Stelfox (Nicholas Hoult) is slashing and burning his way through the music business, a world where ‘no one knows anything’ and where careers are made and broken by chance and the fickle tastes of the general public – “Yeah, those animals”.
Fueled by greed, ambition and inhuman quantities of drugs, Stelfox searches for his next hit record amid a relentless orgy of self-gratification. Created by an industry that demands success at any price, as the hits dry up and the industry begins to change, Stelfox takes the concept of ‘killer tunes’ to a murderous new level in a desperate attempt to salvage his career.
