While Netflix‘s original television series output – ranging from House of Cards to The Crown to Marvel’s highly-anticipated The Defenders – has helped make the network a household name, the same can not yet be said about their original films.
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While several films distributed by the platform, such as Beasts of No Nation and What Happened, Miss Simone?, have recieved award recognition, they have not yet had an original film that recieves the buzz of something like Stranger Things.
With the recent release of the first teaser trailer for The Discovery, there is a chance that that might change.
The above trailer, set to Roy Orbison’s ‘Only the Lonely’, could best be described as esoteric. It seems to show a happy, quaint dynamic between stars Robert Redford, Rooney Mara, and Jason Segel. But with one sour note, things turn almost nightmarish, complete with plenty of Stranger Things-esque brain probes.
The sci-fi film boasts a star-studded cast, including Redford, Mara, Segel, Fargo‘s Jesse Plemons, and Mad Max: Fury Road‘s Riley Keough.
While plot details are scarce, Netflix’s official synopsis offers some sort of clue of what to expect from the film. It describes the project as “a love story set in a world where the afterlife has been scientifically proven, and as a result millions of people start taking their own lives to ‘get there.’”
Netflix goes on to explain that “Dr. Thomas Harbor (Redford) has made a scientific breakthrough that shocked the world. This knowledge has thrown our lives off balance and challenged everything we know about life and death. What is The Discovery?”
Netflix is no stranger to the topic of the afterlife, with the platform’s latest sleeper hit series The OA premiering this past December. While The OA was divisive to critics and fans alike, we will have to wait and see what kind of response The Discovery recieves.
Helming the project is Charlie McDowell (Silicon Valley), who co-wrote the film with Justin Lader (The One I Love). The film was produced by Alex Orlovsky of A-LO Films and James D. Stern of Endgame Entertainment, and was co-financed by Endgame Entertainment and Protagonist Pictures. Executive Producers are Julie Goldstein, Lucas Smith, Mike Goodridge, Dimitra Tsingou, Hunter Gray, McDowell and co-producer Erika Hampson.
While the film will not be released on the streaming platform until March 31st, you can keep up with the film through its Facebook page and through the hashtag #TheDiscovery.
