Hollywood was inevitably going to start churning out movies and TV shows centered around the current Coronavirus predicament, but an argument can be made that the last thing audiences want to see are fictional stories revolving around the various lockdowns and quarantines that we’ve all grown tired of by this point.
You either go full-blown Corona Zombies and cash in with a bargain basement B-movie, or you run the risk of turning out like Michael Bay’s Songbird, which was roundly dismissed from the second it arrived. Similarly, Host made the most of the circumstances to deliver one of last year’s best horrors, while Netflix anthology series Social Distance was almost completely ignored because subscribers clearly had no interest in true-life stories set in the age of COVID-19.
Based solely on the talent involved, though, HBO Max’s upcoming comic crime thriller Locked Down stands a much better chance of success. Doug Liman directs from a script by Locke and Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight, with Anne Hathaway and Chiwitel Ejiofor in the lead roles. The story follows a couple that have seen their marriage stretched to breaking point during the pandemic, but they put their differences to one side in order to stage a jewellery heist.
Of course, if Locked Down fails to strike the right tonal balance, it could come off as completely tone deaf given that the trailer features rich and famous stars spinning a fictional yarn that involves very real problems like job losses, crumbling relationships, Zoom calls with loved ones and isolation, not to mention the requisite toilet paper joke. For now, though, we’ll hold out hope considering the talent involved and it’ll be interesting to see what critics and viewers make of it when it releases on January 14th.