A24 acquired the U.S. rights to Ruben Östlund’s The Entertainment System Is Down this weekend.
The eight-figure deal gives A24 U.S. distribution rights to what will be the Swedish film director’s second English-language movie, after 2022’s Triangle of Sadness. The latter won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022, which marked Östlund’s second time taking home the prize after 2017’s The Square.
Like his last movie, The Entertainment System Is Down is also a social satire, this time set on a long-haul flight in which the entertainment system fails and passengers must figure out how else to fill their time. Östlund and his producer, Erik Hemmendorff, purchased a real Boeing 747 for the film.
The movie’s cast includes 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 movie at Cannes in 2026. The film will be the director’s seventh total movie, after non-English language entries The Guitar Mongoloid in 2004, Involuntary in 2008, Play in 2011, Force Majeure in 2014 and The Square in 2017.
The Triangle of Sadness earned three Oscar nominations at the 95th Academy Awards, for best original screenplay, best director and best picture. Among others, it starred Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean and Woody Harrelson.