It isn't quite as simple as "get big name, reap rewards", but where the biggest and best streaming services are concerned, star power still counts for a lot. They're all in a constant arms race, after all – and Netflix might have just scored itself something of an intercontinental missile.
In uploading the below trailer for Jay Kelly, it confirmed not just that it has the next movie from celebrated writer-director Noah Baumbach, but also that it stars none other than George Clooney in the title role. It looks every inch the indie darling, even from just this short teaser trailer.
Clooneys' Kelly is a movie star of the sort they don't really make anymore (apart from, ironically enough, Clooney himself). He's world-famous, iconic and relatively private, apart from how he has to make himself available at events and launches.
The movie will apparently follow him and his manager (Adam Sandler) on a trip around Europe. It's a journey that will seemingly throw up plenty of questions for them to ponder about their lives and where they've ended up, and indeed whether it's all been worth it. Netflix is calling the movie a "heartbreaking comedy", which suggests its tone is indeed going to be quite melancholy.
The movie's been co-written by Baumbach and actor Emily Mortimer, who will also appear in it, and from the looks of this trailer, it could be something special. The visual design of the whole thing seems brilliant from what we can see in the trailer, too, with Kelly himself looking every inch the classic movie star in costuming and makeup terms.
It's not just Clooney and Sandler, though. There are some simply huge names floating around in the teaser trailer and press images. The cast will include Greta Gerwig, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Jim Broadbent, Patrick Wilson, Isla Fisher and more.
It's a stacked list, but really it's all about Clooney in the central role – can any other streamer match this sort of star casting in the months to come? Jay Kelly will have a limited cinema run starting on 14 November, before hitting Netflix for streaming on 5 December.
