Netflix shares trailer for new documentary about Robert Downey Jr.’s father
Netflix has shared the trailer for Robert Downey Jr.’s documentary about his late father. The new film – titled Sr. – was shot over three years and explores the career of filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. as well as his relationship with his son
The trailer plays out to the sound of Yusuf/Cat Stevens’ song ‘Father & Son’ and shows Downey Jr. doing his best to interview his father, who doesn’t appear to be taking the project very seriously at all. “Robert had the idea of doing a documentary about his dad and their life together,” says Downey Sr.’s partner. “So many people, they know Robert Downey Jr., but they don’t know Robert Downey Sr.”
Unveiling the project in a recent Instagram post, Downey Jr. said: “He was a groundbreaking filmmaker. As well as my dad. It’s not uncomplicated… Sr. is a documentary that tells the story of Robert Downey’s maverick rise in NYC, his crash, burn and redemption in Hollywood and our relationship in the aftermath.”
Downey Sr. has had quite a life. After serving in the army, becoming a Golden Gloves champion and beginning a career as an off-Broadway playwright (all before he was 22), he stepped into the buzzing American film industry of the 1970s, releasing irreverent masterpieces such as Pound and Moment to Moment.
His son has had an equally varied career. At the moment, Downey Jr. is working on a number of projects, including the Discovery+ series Downey’s Dream Cars, which follows the actor and a team of experts as they talk all things classic cars, and Oppenheimer, the latest film from Inception director Christopher Nolan.
Oppenheimer tells the story of the man who helped create the atomic bomb. On witnessing the first detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16th, 1945, the theoretical physicist quoted a piece of Hindu scripture: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”.
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