Yesterday, Spanish-language site Vértice Cine posted an update on Faster, Cheaper, Better, the new movie from Nightcrawler director Dan Gilroy. The interesting-sounding project is about the rise of robots and the impact of automation on human workers. But what set tongues wagging was their announcement that the movie would star Brad Pitt and Harry Styles. Vanity Fair picked up on the story, made it sound like a done deal and the internet promptly lost its mind.
Based on this rumor, Pitt and Styles began trending on Twitter, borne on the wave of a cavalcade of tweets that can only be described as incredibly thirsty. Here’s but a sample…
https://twitter.com/fallinglarryy/status/1296046935992803328?s=20
https://twitter.com/HSLOTFlLMS/status/1296126702163304459?s=20
https://twitter.com/sheismarter/status/1296109339909001216?s=20
https://twitter.com/allpayne28/status/1296100563029958656?s=20
https://twitter.com/lolniallolol/status/1296099630334332931?s=20
https://twitter.com/DiaryOfMonika/status/1296104019161681920?s=20
https://twitter.com/abbyluschei/status/1296113237360914433?s=20
https://twitter.com/CapitalOfficial/status/1296084750071930881?s=20
https://twitter.com/hesgoldnx/status/1296097897180590081?s=20
I’ve never seen the resemblance before, but if a casting director was so inclined, the pair would be amazing as younger and older versions of the same character. Indeed, their involvement fits with Gilroy describing the project as “a big multi-narrative film, set over two decades in multiple locales.” Characters include “a union boss, a young businessman, a farm manager, and a tech millionaire” who find their lives affected for the worse by the arrival of AI and robots that can do their jobs far more efficiently than they can.
But sadly, it transpires that Faster, Cheaper, Better won’t star either Brad Pitt or Harry Styles. Vanity Fair later updated their story and said that “sources close” to the actors had told them the report isn’t true. They apologized for getting everyone’s hopes up as well, saying “part of being human is making mistakes. This was one of them.”
Still, the touchpaper has been lit. Judging by the frothing reactions online to even the chance of this partnership happening, can it really be too long before a director unites these two on the silver screen? Let’s get this show on the road already!