There are few talents we need in the world right now as much as Armando Iannucci. The Scottish writer and director has been a familiar comedy face in the UK for a long time (helping to create the seminal “The Day Today,” which launched the careers of Chris Morris and Steve Coogan), but he really broke through in the U.S. with his political sitcom “The Thick Of It,” the Oscar-nominated film spin-off “In The Loop,” and the America-set spiritual sequel “Veep.”
All three share qualities — a docudrama-ish quality, brilliant comic performances across the board, some of the greatest swearing and insults in the history of the English language — but more than that, they skewer the low-key incompetencies, egos and absurdities of the political world like few others, and in ways which both capture their times, and prove oddly prescient. “The Thick Of It” and “Veep”weren’t about our current mess, but they sure as hell strike a chord when you watch them back.
Iannucci’s latest movie “The Death Of Stalin,” which takes a “Veep”-ish approach to the power struggles to succeed the titular Soviet dictator, premiered at TIFF earlier in the month and we pretty much loved it: Kevin called it “a timely, hilarious, bleak satire.” Distributors IFC haven’t yet set a U.S. date for the movie, but the U.K. release is just a few weeks away now, and a new trailer has dropped for it.
It’s shorter than the previous one, but still provides an opportunity to see the excellent cast — Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi, Michael Palin, Simon Russell Beale, Jason Isaacs, Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Friend, Paddy Considine and many, many more — do their thing. You can watch the video below, and “the Death Of Stalin” will open in the UK on October 20th, and in the U.S. likely in 2018.
As for Iannucci’s next move once the film is out in the wild, he’s developing a new film of Charles DIckens’ “David Copperfield” as his next directing gig, but he’s also heading back to TV too: The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Iannucci is returning to “Veep” broadcaster HBO for a new sci-fi comedy pilot with the working title of “Avenue 5.” Details are under wraps beyond that it’s set in the future, and largely in space, but assuming that means something by the way of “Veep” in the Federation from “Star Trek,” that’s more than enough to get us on board. The project will shoot in London next year.