Thanks to the critical success of their HBO show “Westworld,” Lisa Joy and her husband, Jonathan Nolan, are an ascendant power couple in the Hollywood landscape. Neither of them is a stranger to success and critical acclaim. Joy made her start in TV writing for two cult favorites, the short-lived resurrection comedy “Pushing Daisies” and the Miami-based spy show “Burn Notice.” Since 2000, Nolan wrote and co-wrote screenplays for his director brother you may have heard of: Christopher Nolan.
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The couple’s next project, “Reminiscence,” looks to be a marriage of their respective creative pasts: a pulpy, mind-bending thriller set in the flooded Miami of the near future. Hugh Jackman leads a strong cast as a veteran turned mind detective who uncovers a murder mystery after falling in love with a client. Here’s the official synopsis:
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Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman), a private investigator of the mind, navigates the darkly alluring world of the past by helping his clients access lost memories. Living on the fringes of the sunken Miami coast, his life is forever changed when he takes on a new client, Mae (Rebecca Ferguson). A simple matter of lost and found becomes a dangerous obsession. As Bannister fights to find the truth about Mae’s disappearance, he uncovers a violent conspiracy and must ultimately answer the question: how far would you go to hold on to the ones you love?
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Alongside Jackson and Rebecca Ferguson, “Reminiscence” also stars Thandiwe Newton, Cliff Curtis, Marina de Tavira, and Daniel Wu. The cast also includes Nico Parker, Angela Sarafyan, Mojean Aria, Brett Cullen, and Natalie Martinez.
“Reminiscence” marks Joy’s feature debut as a director after being behind the camera for every episode of “Westworld” so far as a producer (she also has directed an episode). Joy also wrote the film and is a producer alongside Nolan, Michael DeLuca, and Aaron Ryder.
The runaway success of “Westworld” has given Joy and Nolan industry prowess beyond movies, too. The couple recently signed a creative deal with Amazon worth $150 million over five years. Joy and Nolan’s first two projects as executive producers fit their sci-fi niche perfectly: an adaptation of the videogame series “Fallout” and a series based on the 2014 William Gibson novel, “The Peripheral.”
How will Lisa Joy fare in her jump from small-screen to big? Find out on September 3, when “Reminiscence” opens in theaters and streams exclusively for one month on HBO Max.