Michael Haneke goes to TV (too)

Quote :

No longer content to confine his brand of feel-bad nihilism to movie theaters, Michael Haneke is working on his first TV series. “Kelvin’s Book” will consist of 10 episodes and is described as a high-concept venture by FremantleMedia’s UFA Fiction, which is developing the series with everyone’s favorite Austrian auteur.

The series is “set in a dystopian world and will tell the adventurous story of a group of young people in a not too distant future. During a flight, they are forced to make an emergency landing outside of their home and are confronted with the actual face of their home country for the first time.” As for his motivations, Haneke said simply, “After ten TV-movies and twelve films, I wanted to tell a longer story for once.”

http://www.indiewire.com/2018/01/kelvins-book-michael-haneke-tv-show-1201922589/

He isn't the first and probably won't be the last auteur who finds that TV is a much friendlier medium nowadays if you have a personal vision you want to see realized.

Looking forward to this. Haneke has a sense of humour that is lost on most people. Everyone remembers the first time they saw Funny Games, but only a few found it amusing as well as horrifying. His work is the stuff of middle-class nightmares.

I don't really understand some directors aversion to it. Nolan and Quentin Tarantino are on the record as hating the idea of working for a TV screen as opposed to the cinematic experience. Of course, they are in the small minority of directors who probably still enjoy something resembling final cut.

With "The Knick" and "Mindhunter", both Soderbergh and Fincher seem totally on board with the notion that it's a much more auteur friendly medium.

I guess TV now has taken the place of the mid-budget indie film.