Think the secrecy around the biggest Hollywood blockbusters is crazy? They don’t come close to what John Malkovich and Robert Rodriguez are doing. The pair has collaborated for a film that no one will see for 100 years. Literally.
This isn’t some joke. They’ve made a film, called 100 Years, which is being placed in a special time-locked safe that won’t open again until November 18, 2115. Why? Well, because it’s promotion for Louis XIII Cognac, an ultra-luxury liquor that is aged 100 years. Bottles currently on shelves were made in 1915 so they decided a piece of art that speaks to their commitment to quality was something worth doing.
“Louis XIII is a true testament to the mastery of time and we sought to create a proactive piece of art that explores the dynamic relationship of the past, present and future,” said global executive director of Louis XIII, Ludovic du Plessis, in a news release.
They approached Malkovich, who du Plessis calls the “the greatest actor of his generation,” to come up with an idea. What that idea is, they would not say. It’s all part of the secrecy and illusion. All they’d say was it’s set in the present and is “emotionally charged,” according to Rodriguez.
So what are images like the ones (of star Shuya Chang) you see above ? They’re part of three teasers created for the film, each of which imagines a different versions of the future.
“There were several options when the project was first presented of what [the future] would be,” said Malkovich. “An incredibly high tech, beyond computerized version of the world, a post-Chernoybl, back to nature, semi-collapsed civilization and then there was a retro future which was how the future was imagined in science fiction of the 1940s or 50s.”
Here are the teasers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqMKrFFvR00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NYEj7A5w2U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1ka20sR-o8
Those three teasers were created to show what it might look like when someone uncovers the film in 100 years. But, and this is important, none of them are the actual film. The one in the vault that’ll live at the House of Louis XIII in Cognac, France.
To come up with that idea, Malkovich did lots of research about futurism, science fiction, and even visions of today from 100 years ago. “Some of it was strangely accurate, oddly enough, but of course the vast majority of it was unimaginable. And I think that’s what the future is to most of us,” he said.
How the team at Louis XIII envisions this all going down: they are sending out metal movie tickets to about 1,000 influential people inviting them to invite their descendants to a screening exactly one century from today. At that time, they’ll grab an old projector (the movie will be preserved on film stock) and press play. Will that actually happen? Who knows. But the people making Louis XIII cognac today are doing so for people who won’t be able to drink it until 2115. So why not a movie?
Here’s a featurette.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8vv_GVJgyc
