Netflix has released the official trailer for the upcoming film, and there’s no shortage of bizarre moments, from a very wet dog to Toni Collette going full United States of Tara in the role of an overbearing mother to an all-knowing fast food employee. Is there anything this movie doesn’t have? Written and directed by Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), I’m Thinking of Ending Things stars Jessie Buckley as a young woman who takes a road trip with her boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) to his family farm. Buckley’s character is already hesitant about the relationship — as the title suggests, she’s thinking of ending things — but when a snowstorm leaves her trapped with her boyfriend’s quirky parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis), she begins to question everything she knows about herself and the world around her. Netflix’s synopsis may make the film sound like a typical family dramedy, but the trailer suggests that I’m Thinking of Ending Things is anything but fun. Not only is Buckley’s character stuck with a boyfriend she’s unsure about; she’s also stuck with his out-there parents in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. One interaction seems to sum up Buckley’s experience best. “Jake has told us so much about you,” his mother tells her upon their arrival. “He’s told me so much about you, too,” replies Buckley. “And you came anyway?!” asks Collette with a high-pitched laugh. Creepy. I’m Thinking of Ending Things, based on Ian Reid’s 2016 novel of the same name, is one of Netflix’s highest-profile releases of the year. With its fall premiere date, the drama is sure to pick up awards buzz (assuming that awards season still happens) in the weeks to follow. I’m Thinking of Ending Things premieres Friday, September 4 on Netflix. Watch the official trailer above.

According to NME, Toni Collette’s directorial debut “The Best Of Adam Sharp” is one of 42 productions to share in Screen Australia’s $1.6million of Development Funding announced yesterday. 14 feature films, eight online projects and 20 television dramas received the latest funding round, the last awarded in the 2019/20 financial year. Collette’s The Best Of is a romantic comedy based on Graeme Simpson’s book of the same name, and is set to be adapted for screen by comedian and writer Mark Watson. Per a synopsis, the film “follows amateur musician turned IT specialist Adam Sharp who has a stable, unexceptional life with his matter-of-fact wife Claire”. “When his first love, Angelina, gets in touch with an offer of reuniting, Adam must choose between the fantasy of a life unlived and the reality of his marriage in its quiet beauty”. In response to a Mediaweek article announcing the film, Watson tweeted the film is “still 11 steps from actually getting made”, joking that he shared it anyway because “what’s the use of being strung along by this business if you can’t occasionally look good to your mum”.

Big congratulations to Toni Collette for receiving a Primetime Emmy Award nomination earlier today as Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Limited Series Or Movie for “Unbelievable”. She shares the category with Holland Taylor for “Hollywood”, Uzo Aduba for “Mrs. America”, Margo Martindale for “Mrs. America”, Tracey Ullman for “Mrs. America” and Jean Smart for “Watchmen”. The response to “Unbelievable” was a bit of a snub – it has received 4 nominations for Outstanding Limited Series, Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Casting – but it was overlooked in the Lead Actress category with nominations for either Kaitlin Dever or Merritt Wever – both would have been equally deserving – or any directing nominations. Still, 4 nominations and a spotlight on Toni’s fantastic performance is more than we should be asking for. This is Toni’s fourth Emmy nomination – she was nomiated in 2007 for “Tsuanmi: The Aftermath”, won Best Actress in a Comedy Series for “United States of Tara” in 2009 and received a consecutive nomination for the show’s second season in 2020. The Emmys will be handed out on September 20, 2020.

Charlie Kaufman always takes his viewer on a ride, but I’m Thinking of Ending Things — his first live-action film in more than a decade — raises his obsession with subjective experience to bracing new levels. “I don’t set out to do a mindf—,” the Oscar-winning filmmaker says. “I’m not setting out to do something that ‘tops’ some sort of brainteaser I might have done before. But there’s no question that I’m trying to build on the stuff that I’ve already done.” Indeed, fans of the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind scribe and Synecdoche, New York director should pick up traces of his past work here. Ending Things begins as a sort of moody couple’s road trip, in which Jake (Jesse Plemons) and his girlfriend (Jessie Buckley) drive out to his (slightly haunted) childhood home for her to meet his parents (David Thewlis and Toni Collette). On the way there, the sense slowly builds that things aren’t quite what they seem; upon arrival, the pair are thrust in directions that bend the laws of reality, memory, and love. “Loneliness and hopelessness and regret — these are things that are part of the fabric of this film,” Kaufman says. The complete article can be read over at Entertainment Weekly.

Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m thinking of Ending Things”, based on an acclaimed Iain Reid novel, involves a young man (Jesse Plemons) taking his new girlfriend (Jessie Buckley) to visit his parents (David Thewlis and Toni Collette) on an isolated farm. But on the way there… well, “something happens.” To say anything more would spoil a twisted, diabolical narrative on page that Kaufman will undoubtedly stretch and twist to its absolute breaking point. He’s assembled himself an outstanding cast — I especially love the parental combination of Collette and Thewlis, both so great at “horrifically screaming at their scene partners.” A Collider article on the upcoming release has more information: I’m also intrigued by some of star Plemons’ comments regarding the making of the film: “I was pretty intimidated because we were shooting on average 11 pages a day, every day, on a stage, prop guys throwing snow. It was almost… ‘psychological torture’ is too strong, but it did have a strange effect. Jessie and I became delirious and were laughing a lot. The longest take is something like 16 minutes I think? So it was like ‘Action! See ya in a while!’ It changed acting for me in a way, I think.”

🚨New Charlie Kaufman alert!

I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS—an exploration of regret, longing & the fragility of the human spirit—comes to Netflix on 4 September.

Inspired by Iain Reid's novel, Kaufman's latest stars Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, Toni Collette & David Thewlis.

— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) July 1, 2020

Here comes an insightful article by The Hollywood Reporter on Toni’s upcoming film “Stowaway”. Almost exactly a year ago, in what seems now a distant universe — pre-novel coronavirus pandemic, pre-lockdown — I was crouched next to a monitor as Anna Kendrick and Daniel Dae Kim floated past me and above my head. As I watch, director Joe Penna calls out to the wire technicians to adjust the cables — nearly invisible — that hold Kendrick and Kim dangling in their harnesses, 30 feet in the air. “We’re used to seeing weightlessness in space in a certain way but I think I’ve found a few new takes,” Penna says. “Throughout the film the amount of gravity shifts, from 1 G all the way down to 0 G, or completely weightless. At each stage they’re going to move differently, each stage will look different.” It’s July 12, 2019 and we’re on a soundstage at the MMC Studios in Cologne, Germany. Penna is in the home stretch shooting Stowaway, a space drama he co-wrote with his frequent collaborator, and editor, Ryan Morrison. They had the idea for the movie — a morality play set on a spaceship traveling to Mars — long before coronavirus. But with their story of a small group in isolation, cut off the rest of the world, and worried about the dangers that lurk just outside, the two may have inadvertently made the ultimate film for the pandemic. “It’s stranger than fiction,” says Aram Tertazakian from XYZ Films, which produced Stowaway and, together with CAA Media Finance, is presenting it to buyers at the Virtual Cannes Market this week. “Joe and Ryan didn’t predict the pandemic, but the themes of the movie have a particular resonance right now.” Actually, Joe and Ryan did predict the pandemic. At the Tribeca Film Festival last year they debuted a short web series, Release, about a deadly virus outbreak in the United States. “It was scary how close we got to the real thing,” says Morrison, speaking from his office in Los Angeles on June 10. “I actually had to visit a hospital at the peak of the outbreak and it looked exactly like the sets we designed for Release.” The complete article can be read over at The Hollywood Reporter.