It’s the end of the world as we know it – or at least, it appears to be at the cinema. The latest pre-apocalyptic piece of filmmaking to threaten our very existence has just finished shooting, with Abel Ferrara putting Willem Dafoe, Public Enemies’ Shanyn Leigh and Natasha Lyonne through 4:44 Last Day on Earth.
The film finds a couple (including Dafoe) contemplating the end of everything and everyone they know. Having accepted the fact that the world will be destroyed via some unknown, violent and inescapable event at 4:44am the next morning, they choose to spend their last few hours together in their apartment high above New York.
Others, however, are still hoping for a last minute reprieve, for some miracle to get them through unscathed. The drama follows what happens to the various characters.
Impending doom definitely seems to be a pervading theme right now: we’ve got Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, the Steve Carell romantic comedy drama Seeking a Friend At The End Of The World gearing up and plenty of films in development about huge, destructive events. Are they trying to tell us something?
Ferrara’s effort will be shopped around Cannes starting next week.