You may have seen the unofficial – and quickly vaporised – footage from Terry Gilliam’s latest, The Zero Theorem, when it arrived online a while ago. Quite possibly you were further intrigued by our exclusive first look and report on the Comic-Con presentation. If all that has your appetite well and truly whetted, prepare to enjoy the first official clip from the film.
Coming off as the nightmare spawn of Gilliam’s own Brazil with a dash of updated, Minority Report-style ad-spewing, the clip finds Christoph Waltz as Qohen Leth, a genius computer programmer reduced to working as a grunt for a Megacorporation, but who is also obsessed with finding the reason for human existence.
Here, the shaven-headed, nervous Leth navigates the crowded way from where he lives in an abandoned church to his job, passing endless adverts (who doesn’t want to join the Church Of Batman The Redeemer?) and assorted oddballs.
It all feels like Gilliam is firing on all freaky cylinders, and gives us hope for the rest of the film, which also features David Thewlis, Melanie Thierry, Lucas Hedges, Ben Whishaw, Tilda Swinton and Matt Damon in a superbly be-wigged supporting turn.
The Zero Theorem has had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the various festival screenings will help it snag distribution so we can all see it…