High-concept thrillers and satires about pandemics seem, for obvious reasons, set to stay with us for the foreseeable future. Latest off the blocks at Cannes is Rich Flu, which already had Rosamund Pike attached to star, and has now added Macaulay Culkin and Daniel Bruhl to its roster. The director is Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, whose last film was the excellent Spanish-language sci-fi horror parable The Platform.
First it came for the billionaires... Rich Flu's elevated genre pitch is that a strange disease has sprung up in the world, but it affects only the mega-wealthy, starting at Elon Musk level and gradually working its way down the global rich list. Cue economic chaos via a massive scramble to sell off assets: extreme wealth redistribution suddenly seeming like the best way to stay alive...
Gaztelu-Urrutia wrote the screenplay in cahoots with his usual collaborators Pedro Rivero, and David Desola, with some further work by Sam Steiner. Filming is currently set for the autumn.