Following the back-to-back Oscar winners Birdman and The Revenant–as well as being only the third director in history to receive consecutive Best Director awards–Alejandro González Iñárritu took a bit of a break after the grueling shoot of his Leonardo DiCaprio-led feature. In the five years since he’s helmed the VR film Carne y Arena, but no new updates on what film he may shoot next. Today now finally brings news of his next feature.
El Universal reports the director has been scouting locations and doing camera tests in Mexico City for a new project, spotted with cinematographer Bradford Young (Arrival, Solo: A Star Wars Story). While no specific details on the title, cast or plot are known yet, they were seen at Chapultepec Castle and in the historic center of Mexico City. Reports indicate the cast was dressed in ’90s outfits and the tests included cardboard cutouts of politicians Carlos Salinas de Gortari and José López Portillo. There was also an actor dressed as the famous children’s character Pajára Peggy and sets from the Mexican comedy series El Chavo del Ocho.
Denis Villeneuve’s frequent production designer Patrice Vermette (Dune, Arrival) is also on board, according to Discussing Film. While production on the independent film was aiming to kick off in April, we imagine things have hit a roadblock with the coronavirus pandemic, but we can hope production will resume after this crisis subsides. As we await more details, from these first hints of a Mexico City-set story around the time of the director’s formative years, it certainly sounds like Iñárritu is taking a note from Alfonso Cuarón and reaching into his past, but we’ll learn more soon.
Below, see the two references mentioned above and read our in-depth interview with cinematographer Bradford Young here. (Also, for those curious why Iñárritu isn’t re-teaming with his recent collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki, it’s likely due to the fact that he’s shooting David O. Russell’s next film.)
