People in artworks coming to life and murdering those near them? That’s what Netflix’s Velvet Buzzsaw is all about and it comes from Nightcrawler director Dan Gilroy while featuring a star-studded cast.
Velvet Buzzsaw is a satirical thriller set in the contemporary art world scene of Los Angeles, where big money artists and mega-collectors pay a high price when art collides with commerce.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Gilroy was struck by the idea after visiting the Dia contemporary-art gallery in Beacon, New York two years ago. “The idea that artists invest their souls in their work and it’s more than a commodity—that has always interested me. I suddenly saw a way of incorporating it all, to explore how, when art and commerce are dangerously out of balance, bad things can happen. It clicked very quickly.”
By the time Gilroy returned home an hour later, he had a rough plot and began writing a script with characters specifically in mind for Gyllenhaal and Russo.
“Jake plays Morf Vandewalt, who’s a contemporary art critic,” explained Gilroy. “And his character is the protagonist who leads us through the film and he takes us deeper and deeper into a mystery that leads to a final shocking realisation. Rene plays Rhodora Haze, who started in a punk band in the 70s and now runs the biggest contemporary art gallery in Los Angeles. She was a musician who turned her back away from art to making money and she’s been very good at it.”
“John Malkovich plays the most successful contemporary artist in the world, whose name is Piers,” said Gilroy. “And his word has diminished to the point that he’s unable to create because he stopped drinking. So he’s an alcoholic who’s on the wagon and it’s affected his creativity deeply. And Toni Collette plays a character who starts off as a curator at the foremost contemporary art museum in Los Angeles. And she decides to go for the money and becomes an art advisor.”
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler), Rene Russo (Nightcrawler), Toni Collette (Wanderlust), John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich), Zawe Ashton (Wanderlust), Natalia Dyer (Stranger Things), Tom Sturridge (Sweetbitter), Daveed Diggs (Black-ish), and Billy Magnussen (Maniac).
Velvet Buzzsaw hits Netflix internationally on February 1st.
