Nicolas Cage’s new movie ‘Dream Scenario’ set to open Zurich Film Festival
Dream Scenario, the Nicolas Cage-starring surrealist comedy from Kristoffer Borgli, will open this year’s Zurich Film Festival in late September.
The movie is the English-language debut of the Norwegian filmmaker, who drew widespread acclaim for his 2022 feature debut, Sick of Myself. In the film, Cage plays the family man, Paul Matthews, whose life is upended when millions of strangers start seeing him in their dreams. Dylan Baker, Kate Berlant, Michael Cera, Dylan Gelula, and Tim Meadows co-star.
Released domestically by A24, Dream Scenario is to have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival next month, where it opens TIFF’s Platform competition programme. Its appearance at the Zurich Film Festival will also be significant, as it will be the first time the studio has had an opening night there.
However, the ongoing Hollywood strike of actors who are a part of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFRTA), and writers who are members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) means that the cast of Dream Scenario are not expended to be at Zurich. However, Borgli will be there, as will the President of the Swiss Federal Council, Alain Berset, and Zurich City Mayor Corine Mauch.
Being shown elsewhere at Zurich will be Todd Haynes’ drama, May December, William Oldroyd’s thriller Eileen, and Tran Anh Hung’s French romance, The Pot-Au-Feu. Notably, Haynes’ film stars Julianne Moore opposite Natalie Portman and will open the New York Film Festival on September 29th, after premiering at Cannes in May.
“We are all so proud and moved to have been invited to open the New York Film Festival,” Haynes said at the time of the New York announcement. “It is a festival that plays a role in my work and life like no other in the world since it enshrines the cultural life of this city, which is both my creative home as a filmmaker and, as ever, the eternal site of artistic possibility.”
In May, it was announced Netflix had purchased the rights to distribute Haynes’ May December for $11 million. The movie tells the story of a marriage which is tested by the re-emergence of a public scandal that rocked their relationship 20 years ago. The scandal revolves around the age gap between the central couple, with Charles Melton’s May being just 13 when Moore’s December, who is much older, fell for him.
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