The first trailer for Netflix's The Bubble features a star-studded cast, including an unlikely cameo from Doctor Strange star Benedict Cumberbatch.
Directed by Judd Apatow, who co-wrote the script with Pam Brady, The Bubble is a movie about making a movie during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Along with green screen antics and actors making TikToks with dinosaurs, the trailer also features assurances from producers that the influenza is "the good virus" as well as a disturbingly realistic deep fake of Cumberbatch. As an actor dons the deep fake of the Doctor Strange actor's face, a fictionalized version of David Duchovny demands that he "stop being Benedict Cumberbatch!" The Bubble arrives on Netflix April 1.
At the core of the story, the film follows a group of actors as they work to complete "Cliff Beasts 6: Battle for Everest: Memories of a Requiem," the sixth sequel in the "23rd largest Dino franchise ever." Netflix provided a fake logline for the action movie, which reads as follows: "Humankind is threatened once again by a dinosaur species: Cliff Beasts. The team must reunite, after 5 long years, to battle the Cliff Beasts - but this time on Mount Everest."
The Bubble takes place in October 2020 and stars Karen Gillan and Pedro Pascal as the lead actors in the fictional movie, "Cliff Beasts 6: Battle for Everest: Memories of a Requiem." They, along with the rest of the cast, get stranded at a hotel in the United Kingdom after the COVID-19 pandemic causes production to halt. The Bubble is described as a "comedy about a group of actors and actresses stuck inside a pandemic bubble at a hotel attempting to complete a sequel to an action franchise film about flying dinosaurs."
"I'm sure I'm going to try to make some projects that have smarter aspirations. It's definitely a complicated world right now. Art -- drama and comedy -- will need to reflect it," Apatow said to IndieWire about The Bubble. "But not all the time. Sometimes you want to talk about what's happening, and sometimes you want to provide people with an entertaining break from all the stressful things they’re experiencing, and I assume we'll do both."
The Bubble is Apatow's first movie since The King of Staten Island in 2020 and is the first of his films to be distributed by Netflix. The Bubble features a large ensemble cast that includes Karen Gillan, Iris Apatow, Fred Armisen, Maria Bakalova, David Duchovny, Keegan-Michael Key, Leslie Mann, Pedro Pascal, Vir Das, Rob Delaney and Peter Serafinowicz. It is set to premiere on Netflix April 1.