Sartaj Singh
Keanu Reeves will head to the City of Light as part of a remarkable ensemble next year! The filming of the acclaimed Ruben Östlund’s next feature, ‘The Entertainment System is Down,’ will start in Paris, France, in January 2025. Reeves will star alongside Kirsten Dunst, Woody Harrelson, Daniel Brühl, Samantha Morton, Joel Edgerton, Nicholas Braun, and Vincent Lindon. Östlund also wrote the screenplay.
The plot revolves around a group of passengers aboard a long-distance flight. When the entire aircraft’s entertainment system malfunctions, they face the horror of being bored out of their minds and seek comfort in humorous interactions.
Östlund was inspired by a 2014 psychological study conducted at the University of Virginia that seemingly discovered that a sizable fraction of their test subjects would rather be distracted by pain than face boredom for 15 minutes. Named ‘The Challenge Of The Disengaged Mind,’ the social experiment placed participants alone in a room without distractions and instructed them to think for 6 to 15 minutes. They were informed of a button that would administer a painful but harmless shock when pressed.
Strikingly, the study found that two-thirds of the men and a quarter of the women tested pressed the button out of boredom, curiosity, or an unwillingness to be alone with their thoughts. The study suggests that humans have difficulty sustaining attention internally and prefer external activities, even if those activities are negative or painful. The concept is expected to be the foundation of ‘The Entertainment System is Down,’ as the characters will be alone with their thoughts for over 15 minutes.
Reeves played the titular character in the fourth installment of his epic action film series ‘John Wick’ and breathed new life into two franchises by headlining ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ and ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music.’ The actor will reprise John Wick in the spinoff film ‘Ballerina’ and break the mold by lending his voice to the antagonist Shadow in ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3.’
Östlund is a two-time Palme d’Or-winning, Academy Award-nominated Swedish director known for his satirical comedies such as ‘Triangle of Sadness,’ ‘The Square,’ and ‘Force Majeure.’ His other credits include ‘Play,’ ‘Gitarrmongot,’ and ‘Involuntary.’ According to reports, he acquired a retired Boeing 747 for filming ‘The Entertainment System is Down.’
In recent years, Paris has been growing as a filming hub following substantial efforts by the local government to reduce shooting costs for productions housed within its borders with tax credits and incentives. The high-profile projects shot in the city include Netflix’s ‘Emily in Paris,’ ‘The Diplomat,’ ‘Red Notice,’ and ‘Army of Thieves.’
