First Look: Alicia Vikander Breaks Bad In Irma Vep, HBO’s Remake Of 1996 Maggie Cheung Movie
The thriller, which drops June 7, also stars Fala Chen.
HBO has shared a first look of its upcoming Alicia Vikander-starring limited series, Irma Vep, based on Olivier Assayas’ own 1996 feature film.
The eight-part series, which is written and directed by Assayas, stars Vikander as Mira, an American movie star who is disillusioned by Hollywood a recent breakup. She jets to France to star as Irma Vep in a remake of the French silent film, Les Vampires, but life soon imitates art as Mira struggles to see where Irma ends and her reality begins.
Per press release, Irma Vep promises to “reveal to us the uncertain ground that lies at the border of fiction and reality, artifice and authenticity, art and life.”
In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK, Vikander (who’s also the executive producer) said the show is “so meta, it’s eating itself.” She added, “I think, while I was making it, I played five roles…It’s like Chinese boxes. There’s always something else going on. I think that’s the beauty of the project.”
Rest of us: Expect to walk into a wall of meta cheem-ness.
The Mira (which an anagram of Irma, geddit?) character was originated by Hongkong’s Maggie Cheung in the original movie. Cheung married Assayas in 1998 but they went their separate ways in 2001.
Photos: HBO
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