After the celebration of hardhitting investigative journalism that Spotlight represented, and the somewhat rowdier shenanigans of foreign reporting in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, the trailer for Ricky Gervais’s Netflix-backed feature Special Correspondents has arrived – and demonstrates it has a somewhat different purpose in mind.
Written and directed by Gervais, as well as featuring him in one of the two lead roles, Special Correspondents is clearly designed to take journalists down a peg or two. Gervais plays a sound engineer for a local radio station in New York, and Eric Bana a shades-wearing star reporter. Apparently filing their broadcasts from some sort of war in Ecuador, Gervais and Bana are actually holed up in New York. But then, as the trailer reveals, they are reported “missing”, sparking a major international manhunt – forcing them to make the trip to South America for real.
Special Correspondents marks the latest move from the streaming-service giant into the feature film arena, following recent premieres of the Adam Sandler comedy western The Ridiculous 6, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel Sword of Destiny and the latest Pee-Wee film, Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday. Future Netflix product includes the Brad Pitt starrer War Machine and Mascots, the latest improv comedy from Christopher Guest. Special Correspondents will premiere on Netflix on 29 April.
