Good news for fans of Michael Haneke’s acerbic wit – the Austrian director is turning his hand to a television series for the first time. His follow-up project to 2017’s Happy End will be a 10-part English-language television series, taking place in a dystopian vision of the future. Commenting on his decision, Haneke said: “After 10 TV-movies and 12 films, I wanted to tell a longer story for once.”
Entitled Kelvin’s Book, the drama will focus on a group of young people aboard a flight that’s forced to make an emergency landing, who are then confronted with the reality of their home country for the first time. It sounds suitably mysterious, though, with Haneke at the helm, there’s a strong likelihood of societal commentary and uncomfortable moments that will make you squirm in your seat.
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Haneke is the latest director to make the move to the small screen, following the likes of Paolo Sorrentino (The Young Pope), David Fincher (Mindhunter) and Jean-Marc Vallée (Big Little Lies). This trend shows no signs of slowing down, with Steven Soderbergh, Nicolas Winding-Refn and the Coen Brothers all releasing TV projects in 2018. Haneke started his career in creating television movies, but Kelvin’s Book will be his first series, and second English-language project after his 2007 shot-for-shot remake of Funny Games.
No word on if Haneke’s got roles for Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant yet though – we can only hope.
