Cunk on Cinema Trailer Has Her Chart the History of Film
In Cunk on Cinema, premiering on Netflix on November 15, Diane Morgan returns as Philomena Cunk in a new series from Charlie Brooker.
Billed as Cunk’s most glamorous outing yet, she charts the history of cinema, from the invention of the camera and the New Wave filmmakers of the 1960s right up to the entrance of CGI and what the future of AI holds.
Cunk will attempt to demystify it all while sitting in lumpy seats with stale popcorn, asking herself where cinema came from? And why? What does it want? And why can’t it tell us?
Cunk puts her questions to 23 experts, including Michael Bay (director, Bad Boys, The Rock, Transformers), the multi-award-winning actor Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game, Sherlock), Oscar-nominated composer Daniel Pemberton (Project Hail Mary), Steven E. de Souza (screenwriter, Die Hard, Commando), and Oscar-nominated Seamus McGarvey (cinematographer, Avengers Assemble, Atonement).
There’s also Mark Kermode (critic), Mark Cousins (filmmaker, author of The Story of Film: An Odyssey), Isabel Stevens (managing editor of Sight and Sound magazine), Helen O’Hara (editor at large at Empire Magazine, author of various books about cinema), Catherine Bray (critic at Screen International) and Bryony Dixon (curator of silent film, BFI).
The list continues with David Rubin (casting director of The English Patient, formerly president of the Academy), Jim Dowdall (stunt performer and coordinator, Star Wars, Indiana Jones), Kaleem Aftab (film critic and international film festival programmer), and Sarah Churchwell (author, Behold America: A history of America First and the American Dream).
There’s also Toni Booth (curator of film, National Science and Media Museum), Mo Moshaty (horror specialist), Shelley Cobb (professor of film and feminist media studies, University of Southampton), Jim Al-Khalili (returning interviewee, Cunk on Life, and theoretical physicist, public scientist and broadcaster).
Harvey G. Cohen (senior lecturer in cultural and creative industries, King’s College), Geoff Andrew (film critic and writer), Ashley Jackson (returning interviewee, Cunk on Earth), and Monica B. Pearl (senior lecturer in 20th Century American Lit, English and American Studies, University of Manchester) round out the list, with Jim Al-Khalili and Ashley Jackson also returning from Cunk on Life and Cunk on Earth.
The six 15-minute episodes were directed by Al Campbell. The executive producers include Charlie Brooker, Jessica Rhoades, Diane Morgan, and Sam Ward.
Cunk on Cinema is a Pacesetter Production for BBC iPlayer and BBC Two. Netflix will stream it globally outside of the UK and Ireland. Charlie Brooker leads a team of writers including Ben Caudell, Erika Ehler, Eli Goldstone, Jason Hazeley, Dan Maier, Diane Morgan, Joel Morris, Michael Odewale, Kali Varghese, and Sam Ward.
