ALPHA GANG, new comedy film by the Zellner Brothers is moving on as additional cast have been announced. Cate Blanchett leads the film as the leader of alien invaders disguised as leather-clad biker gang.. She is also a producer through her film company, Dirty Films. Filming is set to start in Spring 2025, Cate would join them after THE SEAGULL’s run (25 February – 5 April) at Barbican.

Tickets for THE SEAGULL are currently sold out. If you missed your chance, you can sign up here for when they release new tickets next year.

Edit: Cate Blanchett will join Benedict Cumberbatch’s charity event, A NIGHT AT THE THEATRE, as part of the annual fundraising event, Letters Live, on 7 November. Tickets can be booked here.

MANIFESTO (2015) exhibition will coincide with the Camerimage Film Festival (16-23 November) where Cate will be presiding the jury of main competition in November. The exhibition will be on display starting November 17 through 17 January 2025 at the Centre of Contemporary Art in Toru?. Cate will be present for the inauguration with Julian Rosefeldt. More info here.

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Alpha Gang Cast

The Zellner brothers’ anticipated alien invasion comedy Alpha Gang, starring and produced by Cate Blanchett, just got buzzier with the unveiling of her co-stars.

Dave Bautista, Steven Yeun, Zoë Kravitz, Léa Seydoux, Riley Keough, and Channing Tatum have been confirmed for the cast as the movie’s international sales agent mk2 films gears up to ramp up pre-sales at the AFM.

Alpha Gang centers on a group of alien invaders sent to conquer Earth. Disguised in human form as a 1950s leather-clad biker gang, dubbed the Alpha Gang. They are ruthless in their mission, until they succumb to the most toxic and contagious human condition of all: emotions.  The movie follows the Zellner brothers’ Sundance hit Sasquatch Sunset.

“These stellar new recruits are a powerhouse of comedic talent, adding even more excitement to this eagerly awaited film. This cast, just like the story and its filmmakers, is out of this world.”  said Fionnuala Jamison, mk2 Films’ Managing Director.

CAA Media Finance is handling North American distribution rights. The Zellner brothers are producing Alpha Gang for ZBi, with Blanchett and Coco Francini for Dirty Films, as well as Gina Gammell for Felix Culpa, Ryan Zacarias for Fat City, Mary Aloe for Aloe Entertainment and Andrea Bucko for Sugar Rush Pictures.

Two-time Oscar winner Blanchett plays the Alpha Gang’s indomitable leader, with the new cast members set to play the gang members.

Alpha Gang takes place in a heightened reality, blending the familiar with the timeless and will be lensed by cinematographer Mike Gioulakis, a regular collaborator with Jordan Peele, M. Night Shyamalan, and David Robert Mitchell, who previously worked on the Zellners’ Sasquatch Sunset.

The film is scheduled to shoot in Spring 2025.

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Disclaimer Interviews

Inside Chapter VGoogle translated from Italian to English.

Cate Blanchett does not like to talk about beauty. “At least not when referring to traditional canons,” she says. She continues: “Part of my job is to capture the viewers’ attention, and to do that you have to look ‘watchable’, which doesn’t mean beautiful. My face, to say, is so strange that it worked. True beauty always has something special about it. Perfection is not interesting..”

The question immediately comes to mind: what has tied you so deeply to the same brand since 2013?
“Mr Armani. I have had a direct, passionate, fruitfully creative relationship with him for a long time, even before I met him in person. I have always loved the mix of masculine and feminine in his fashion. I grew up in the 1980s, listening to the music of Annie Lennox and David Bowie, and so the Armani style has always seemed familiar to me. As is his wabi-sabi vision of beauty, far removed from the concept of perfection (wabi-sabi and the Japanese philosophy that praises imperfection).”

Speaking of the 1980s, have you noticed that there is a return to the aesthetics of that period?
“Of course. The jackets with padded shoulders, the fluffy hair… I love them.”

What did you like about the style of that era?
‘The theatricality. The joy. And the lack of judgement. I had friends who were skinheads, others who were New Romantic, others who were goths, others who were super classics who walked around with Mary Jane’s on their feet and each took, stole cues from the other’s aesthetic. Like the bowerbird. Do you know them?”

Actually, no.
“They are extraordinary: they build their nest using objects collected everywhere and assembles them in an eclectic way. I feel a bit like that too.”

Do you like to add some Eighty details to your current look?
“Yes. I love trouser suits and padded jackets. So I couldn’t help but love Mr Armani.”

Let’s get to perfumes. You are the face of Si, a perfume with an important, assertive name. What are the most important yeses you have said recently?
“I think I am a very lucky person because I do the job I love and I collaborate with incredibly inspiring people like Alfonso Cuarón. But that is precisely why I often forget to go on vacation. After Covid, however, since the sense of time has universally changed, I have embraced the idea of taking life differently. The world of cinema is a constant din and I said yes to the fact of being silent for a while, taking a few steps back. Another important aspect of the last 18 months is the pleasure of swimming in freezing waters: I love going to Scotland or Iceland and diving into that freezing sea.”

Did you say no at all?
“It is more difficult to say no and it would not be part of my natural inclination. When I did say no, in hindsight, I wondered what would have happened if instead… I’ve always considered life like those books we read as children in which it was written: *if you want to go to the volcano, go to page 36, while if you want to go back to the hill, go to page 17*. The book offered, each time, a different experience. Lately, however, I’ve started to think that it’s more daring to decide that there is only one path to follow. We don’t have time to travel too many different paths: we have to select. Do less, but better.”

Has your relationship with fragrances changed over the course of your life?
“It might seem silly, and in fact I haven’t told anyone, but I often use fragrances as a means to unconsciously connect with the character I have to play from time to time. In general, however, my relationship with perfumes has become more conscious over time. By meeting noses, talking to them, I have acquired skills. Like with wine: the more you know, the more you can describe the emotions it arouses in you with the appropriate adjectives. You become an academic.”

Let’s talk about work: in your career you have often played fearless women…
“No one is fearless.”

So let’s say brave, daring characters. Do you feel a bit like them?
“Being fearless and being brave are two different concepts. In the first case one borders on recklessness: there is so much to be afraid of. It’s also true, however, that there are situations in which you have to be. Every time I accept a new part, even though I see the pitfalls, I say to myself “Okay, but why shouldn’t I do it?”. And I end up getting used to the fear. I accept it. The moment when I go on stage will inevitably come anyway.”

Do you find it more interesting to act for a TV series or for the cinema?
“It’s very different: in the case of TV the narration is diluted, so you have to try to surprise the viewer without revealing what will happen next. It’s difficult, but fascinating.”

But when you’re at home, on your couch, do you prefer to watch a series or a film?
“A film, but if I choose a series I try to watch all the episodes at the same time. Strange because, instead, when I read a book that I really like I sip the pages to delay the end of the story as much as possible. But with TV it’s different. I find it difficult to make the commitment to watch an episode every night.”

In the past, when you starred Mrs America – a miniseries on the history of the American feminist movement – ,you had stressed how topical it was to talk about feminism. Is it still a priority or has anything changed?
“Perhaps it would make more sense to address this question to male colleagues. It is like with racism: we should not talk about it with those who suffer it but with those who are responsible for it. There is an aspirational misogyny that needs to be countered. It is something systemic within patriarchal structures. And even though there have been matriarchal models in history, nobody talks about it, nobody aspires to different social systems. So, back to the question, at the risk of sounding boring, we have to keep talking about feminism.”

What irritates you about the stereotypes about women’s age?
“We are always a bit extremist. Think about menopause: until a few years ago we didn’t talk about it at all, now we don’t talk about anything else. It’s true that there are women, in some parts of the world, for whom these topics are off limits. So it’s good that they are being talked about and I think that, sooner or later, we’ll find a balance.”

You are an actress, producer, director, beauty ambassador. Is there anything else that you haven’t dared to do yet but that sooner or later…
“I’d like to take care of a garden, a flower garden.”

Full interview on the scans below.

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Source: Deadline