A24 acquired the U.S. rights to Ruben Östlund’s The Leisure System Is Down this weekend.
The eight-figure deal offers A24 U.S. distribution rights to what would be the Swedish movie director’s second English-language film, after 2022’s Triangle of Disappointment. The latter gained the Palme d’Or on the Cannes Movie Competition in 2022, which marked Östlund’s second time taking house the prize after 2017’s The Sq..
Like his final film, The Leisure System Is Down can also be a social satire, this time set on a long-haul flight by which the leisure system fails and passengers should work out how else to fill their time. Östlund and his producer, Erik Hemmendorff, bought an actual Boeing 747 for the movie.
The film’s solid consists of Keanu Reeves, Kirsten Dunst, Daniel Brühl, Nicholas Braun and Samantha Morton, with Dunst and Brühl set to play a married couple.
Östlund plans to debut the film at Cannes in 2026. The movie would be the director’s seventh whole film, after non-English language entries The Guitar Mongoloid in 2004, Involuntary in 2008, Play in 2011, Drive Majeure in 2014 and The Sq. in 2017.
The Triangle of Disappointment earned three Oscar nominations on the ninety fifth Academy Awards, for greatest unique screenplay, greatest director and greatest image. Amongst others, it starred Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean and Woody Harrelson.