The entertainment industry has long made itself a ripe subject for satire, from such classic Hollywood movies as “Sullivan’s Travels” and “Singin’ in the Rain” through affectionate (Truffaut’s “Day for Night”) and cynical (Altman’s “The Player”) looks at behind-the-scenes foibles up to recent, what-a-bunch-of-characters sitcoms (“30 Rock,” “Hacks”).
HBO’s “The Franchise” strives to work all the silliness and venality we’ve come to expect into an up-to-the-minute spoof of superhero IP-making. Unfolding at the Leavesden Studios lot in England, it charts the beleaguered production of “Tecto,” an unloved spinoff from a bigger comic book film franchise.
Showrunner Jon Brown applied expertise gained in the “Veep” and “Succession” writers’ rooms to the concept originally dreamed up by Sam Mendes (who directed its ambitious pilot episode) and “Veep” creator Armando Iannucci. The Envelope talked to Brown and Himesh Patel (“Station Eleven,” “Yesterday”), who plays the multitasking, ultra-stressed first assistant director of the show within the show.
“Centering it on the first AD was telling,” Brown says during a Zoom call. “I wanted to make a show about a group of craftspeople who love movies and are good at doing this, who are trapped inside of this dysfunctional machine. And it’s about the end of something, a franchise going through a bit of a nervous breakdown, and all the people inside it having a collective freakout.”
Patel’s Daniel has to deal with Eric (Daniel Brühl), a German art film director clearly wrong for a project whose hero flies with an invisible jackhammer, and the insecure actor Adam (Billy Magnussen), who plays that title character. But there’s also a snarky third AD, Dag ( Lolly Adefope), eccentric extras, randy personal assistants and sleep-deprived CG artists. As the studio panics and Daniel’s former lover Anita (Aya Cash) becomes the film’s cutthroat producer, just organizing the daily shoot looks like child’s play compared to managing everyone’s fears and egos — including problem-solver Daniel’s own.
“I went in without any specific person or model in mind,” Patel notes on the same Zoom call. “I just had so many of the ADs I’ve worked with over the years in the back of my mind. But when I spoke to our first AD on the pilot episode, Barrie McCulloch, he was really enlightening. He gave me an idea of the ins and outs of his journey, and what it takes to work on a big studio tentpole movie. He’s done that, been the go-between between production and the artistic side of things, and the commercial studio side of things. He was very candid about the impact it had on his life.”
Which, as “The Franchise” presents it anyway, is one of almost complete personal sacrifice for the bulk of production responsibility and none of the power to back that up. While Daniel has to manage such traditional Hollywood satire elements as rampant egos, diva pretensions and clueless but insistent studio interference, more contemporary factors such as female representation, incongruous product placements and glitchy special effects affect how the movie will depict the pop culture franchise he grew up loving.
Given opportunities, though, Daniel can be as imperious and underhanded as any less empathetically drawn showbiz stereotype. “There’s so much to dig your teeth into,” Patel says.
The series opens with a Mendes specialty, a Steadicam shot that follows Daniel through a soundstage setup while introducing all of the characters along with the AD’s tasks. “Even within that first scene, you just get such a clear idea of who he is,” Patel says. “He’’s going through a divorce, he’s got a kid, his ex-girlfriend shows up as his boss … there were so many emotions to hold onto.
“It’s a fascinating journey he goes on as he’s trying to steady the ship — but then ends up sort of taking the wheel,” Patel continues. “What’s interesting about that arc is he’s kind of convinced himself that this is the only way things can go because he has these desires and ambitions. As can happen a lot with that stuff, it just needs to find an opening and then the devil on your shoulder will lead you astray.”
Both Patel and Brown were fans of earlier superhero movies in their British youths. With the series, they’re not out to disparage the genre but to more or less lament what franchises have become.
“I was as much interested in why these movies are the way they are as I was in saying anything declarative about whether they’re good or bad or they’re killing cinema,” Brown says. “We did a lot of research, and people in current franchise movies came to us, very eager. You realize early on that there are no nefarious baddies. These movies are caught in [cultural and commercial] crosswinds, and that’s why they sometimes come out bloated or have weird interludes or have talent from a different region that they’re trying to use to open up new markets.”
Perhaps the show’s most advanced quality is its humanism: While all of these people are capable of awful, foolish things, they’re vulnerable and (mostly) yearn to do good work.
“It’s not ‘Veep,’” Brown says. “I’d say it has more heart to it. I worried that a very cold, hard satire of entertainment might be too clinical. And I also think there is a lot of warmth in moviemaking. People really do put their heart and soul into it. That’s something that I find very moving and also quite sad. Their lives get eaten up in the pursuit of this thing, and it doesn’t always turn out the way you would hope.”