‘Succession’s’ Nicholas Braun in Talks to Join Ruben Ostlund’s ‘The Entertainment System Is Down’ (EXCLUSIVE)
“Succession” star Nicholas Braun is in talks to star in Ruben Östlund’s “The Entertainment System Is Down.” Keanu Reeves, Kirsten Dunst and Daniel Brühl are already on board the buzzy satire.
“The Entertainment System Is Down” is one of the sexiest packages being shopped at the Cannes Film Market, where the Coproduction Office has launched international sales. Östlund is on the ground in Cannes, where he previously won a pair of Palme d’Or trophies with “Triangle of Sadness” in 2022, and “The Square” in 2017.
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Ostlund is set to present the project during an event for Swedish film fund Film i Vast Saturday.
Slated to start shooting next month, the movie takes place on a long-haul flight where the entertainment system fails and passengers are forced to face the horror of being bored. The exact plot of the movie remains under wraps, although it’s already known that it involves a cheating husband, air rage and a heart attack.
Östlund has been collecting anecdotes for the last few years for the movie and conducted a wide international casting search during which he had actors improvising scenes.
Speaking about the project last year, Östlund told Variety the film will be “a study of how human beings interact in this little laboratory that is a plane” and “will look at how modern human beings are wrecked under these circumstances.” He added that he hopes it will cause the biggest walkout in the history of the Cannes Film Festival.
Östlund is producing “The Entertainment System Is Down” with Erik Hemmendorff through their banner Plattform Produktion, which is based in Goteborg, Sweden, while Philippe Bober’s Coproduction Office is also co-producing.
Braun is best-known for his role as the socially awkward cousin Greg on “Succession,” in which he provides most of the series’ comic relief. His performance in the show has earned his a raft of critical laurels, including three Primetime Emmy nominations. Östlund previously worked with Braun for the reimagined and recast stage reading of “Triangle of Sadness” at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts’ Bram Goldsmith Theater in 2022.
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