‘Scandals at the BBC happen because of the command structure’

Armando Iannucci is tired of being a superhero. As a child, he spent “all his pocket money” on Marvel comics, and in recent years he wrote issues Spider-Man And Daredevilbut now even this longtime admirer’s enthusiasm is wearing thin. “I was really excited when things like iron man came out when they started to understand them correctly,” he says. “They felt like a true representation in film of what the comics were. But now I am amazed at this amount. I’m way behind. Actually, I stopped. When it started to sound like, “Well, before you watch this movie, you need to watch this streaming series…” I just thought, “Now you’ve lost me.”

Iannucci wasn’t just annoyed as a viewer: “Every time we tried to book an actor for three days, the message was that he wasn’t available for the next five months because he was busy.” a small room in Shepperton, all green, screaming of something not yet decided.”

So, the latest project from the Glasgow writer and director, best known as co-writer Alan Partridge and the comedic genius behind In the thick of things And Vice Presidentis Franchisecurrently airing on Sky and NOW. Co-created with director Sam Mendes and showrunner John Brown (Vice President, Continuity), the series turns its camera lens on Hollywood itself, following the increasingly chaotic production of a fictional superhero film called Tecto: Eye of the Storm.

Himesh Patel plays Daniel, the exasperated first assistant director tasked with turning the vision of a pretentious auteur (Daniel Brühl) into something the studio will be happy with (read: make them money). While Tecto’s stars—insecure Adam (Billy Magnussen) and self-confident Peter (Richard E. Grant)—loathe each other, his overworked team must account for everything from product placement to pigeon infestations. “What if this isn’t a dream factory?” Lolly Adefope, Daniel’s third assistant director, asks Doug. “What if it’s a slaughterhouse?”

Iannucci is less cynical, but he believes Hollywood is in “existential crisis mode” as the line between film and television blurs: “It’s like independent bookstores have had to rethink their purpose, because you can just click a mouse and get the book, I think movie theaters are going to have to figure out what they’re here for.”

While Brown emphasizes that Maximum Studios’ Tecto is not just a Marvel replacement, he also cites Star warsDC and Fast and Furious as inspiration – it was the “pompousness” of these sprawling film empires that made them worthy targets. “Some of these franchises have a pretty grandiose vision of themselves,” he says, despite often focusing on a concept that leads to “really good, smart people trying to come up with something that’s just stupid.” Parodying is difficult “because it’s a little like trying to make fun of (Donald) Trump: no matter how far you go, it’s never enough.”

In fact, most of the show’s storylines are taken from real life – even a scene in which the actors are temporarily blinded by overly bright lighting. But Iannucci and Brown are especially critical of the ever-changing gates and endless rewrites that typically plague such productions. Brown shares a story they were told about a “really big, expensive” TV show in which a scene was shot multiple times—with and without actors, with and without green screen—so that every detail could be changed later if necessary. “They encourage people to think, ‘Anything can be anything,’” he says. “But the minute something can be anything, then everything becomes nothing… A lot of what they do is defer the decision – throw it aside.”

Iannucci agrees: “Every now and then I get the question, ‘Would you like to meet…?’ and I think: “No.” Because I’ll probably be very excited, but I know what’s going to happen. Any director is hired to do two-thirds, and the last third is the studio that takes over and reshoots it.”

For Iannucci, this is the same disordered hierarchy that he found an object of ridicule in his political comedies. “In large structures it becomes very difficult to apportion blame,” he says. “Things like the mail scandal and things at the BBC tend to happen because the command structure is quite murky… As serious and thoughtful as it looks on the outside, inside you just know they’re kind of making it up. as they progress.”

Since Iannucci left Vice President in 2015, after four episodes, he retreated from contemporary politics, making Death of Stalina black comedy set in Soviet Russia and his famous adaptation of Dickens. Personal History of David Copperfield. This is partly because, in an era of performative politicians such as Trump and Boris Johnson, the scandals that used to make up his storylines are now simply brushed aside: “Every episode (of In the thick of things And Vice President) was about them worrying that they did something wrong… But now no one worries when they did something wrong. They just say, ‘Yeah, well, it’s fake news, isn’t it?'”

The spread of conspiracy theories made it another new project, stage adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s classic film Doctor Strangelovefeel “surprisingly relevant.” “Now we are not only again in a confrontation between NATO and the Russian president with talk of nuclear weapons… but we have also generally provoked chaos in Doctor Strangelove started by a US military general based on a conspiracy theory,” he says of the play, which stars longtime collaborator Steve Coogan and is currently in previews.

“And we saw (in October) when the hurricane hit Florida and North Carolina, people were walking around and saying, ‘Well, it’s the Democrats because they’re pushing the hurricane into Republican counties.’ They can control the weather.” Nobody even asks for proof.”

Iannucci also currently finds himself “obsessed with the information oligarchs – the Musks and the Zuckerbergs.”

“In this election (in the US), we see the enormous influence that they have, not only in terms of financial contribution, but also in terms of control over the news agenda,” he says. “And also the fact that they feel separated from the law. They are so good that taxes and regulations should not apply to them. It’s both frightening and strangely comical: “We’re not saying there shouldn’t be a law!” This simply shouldn’t apply to me, that’s all!”

Iannucci’s vision for tech billionaires is a tantalizing prospect, and if it ever comes to fruition, it is likely that he could succeed in the UK, where the industry has “never been busier” and where both Franchise and his 2020 sci-fi sitcom Avenue 5 were removed. Even though the actors are stuck in CGI superhero purgatory, Iannucci believes it’s “very healthy and good for the economy.” We do all these American productions.”.

However, it has one caveat: unlike FranchiseSticking to a formula that ensures commercial success, Iannucci believes the real value comes from taking creative risks to stand out from the crowd. “We shouldn’t be tempted to do things that look American,” he says. “The things that seem to work are the ones that are very distinctive and in their own place. Things like Little deerfor example, there was a very unusual story from Great Britain, but became an international sensation… We shouldn’t feel like we need to dilute our own culture and our own traditions in order to attract a mass audience.”

The Franchise continues on Mondays on Sky Comedy at 10pm. All episodes are streaming NOW