Jesse Armstrong finds sympathy for ‘rich bastards’ in Mountainhead

Jesse Armstrong didn’t have that planned to make another project billionaires.

The Follow -up The maker took a break after completing the Emmy-winning series of HBO about the ridiculously rich brothers and sisters who are fighting for control of their father’s media congue, who ended in May 2023. But while writing a judgement From Michael Lewis journalist book Infinite go: the rise and fall of a new tycoon, over Crypto fraudster Sam Bankman FriedArmstrong was sucked up in listening to podcasts with technical elites. It inspired him to write and direct his first position: Mountain headA film about three tech billionaires and their less rich, deeply uncertain friend, who all have far too much power at their disposal.

“I could not get the … technical voice, tech -man voice, a billionaire,” says Armstrong, and notes that for him, that voice embodies both “highest confidence in their analytical skills” and “arrogance.” Armstrong is nice here. The word that came up repeatedly in me while I watched the four exchange jargon, insults and delusions of grandeur for the nearly two -hour duration of the film pit.

The film, which starts to stream on HBO May 31, Stars Steve Carell as Venture Capitalist Randall; Jason Schwartzman as Hugo van Yalk, whose nickname “Souper” is a reference to a soup kitchen – and his lower power; Cory Michael Smith as Venis, a Zuck-Elon figure that unleashes hyper-realistic depths on his Platform Traam; And Ramy Youssef as Jeff, who is planning to take great advantage of the release of AI who can combat the chaos that his friend can cause Venis on the world.

The friends meet for a retreat in the mountains, organized by Souper, whose fixation on impressing the cohort with his home decor and food dishes is met with contempt by the others. They have a “no deals, no meals, no high heels” rule for the weekend. But the pleasure – in their case, snow mobiling for a peak and writing their ability on their chest with lipstick – is eventually replaced by suddenly to take over the world and to dock the US.

Mountain head Came together in just a few months, against the background of President Donald Trump’s second term of office, a large part of which was dominated by the Doge mission of Elon Musk. Shooting took place for a few weeks this spring. While Carell says that there were advantages to the tight turnaround – “everyone just trusts their intestines” – says Schwartzman quickly reached fluently in the “tech voice” for which Armstrong went, was a challenge for him.

“At some point I said to Jesse, if you ever want us to say something extra, you have a glossary or a dictionary,” says Schwartzman. “It’s like doing a movie in French and then improvising something in Italian.”

While Armstrong acknowledges that some people can respond to his last project by asking: “Why should I care about these rich bastards,” he abstains from an opinion about them.

“I feel some sympathy for the real people who struggle with a part of this technology, because it is a bit of a hall of mirrors,” says Armstrong. “Many people go in, especially AI, with a feeling of the power of technology, and I think that as far as I can see, a real sense of responsibility.”