Set for release on Sept. 21, the debut teaser for Netflix’s dark comedy “Maniac” gives little away about the show’s premise.
Emma Stone and Jonah Hill, dressed in gray, lab-style jumpsuits, sit opposite each other, near expressionless, at a plain table in a featureless room, for the duration of the “Maniac” teaser trailer.
“Once you begin to appreciate the structure of the mind, there’s no reason to believe that anything about us can’t be changed,” a narrator calmly intones. “The mind will be solved.”
According to show notes carried by Deadline, Stone and Hill play two of ten participants in a pharmaceutical trial, with Stone taking the role of a woman preoccupied by family relationship problems, and Hill a man who may or may not have schizophrenia.
Also involved is Justin Theroux (“The Leftovers”), whose character, a doctor, claims that his new pills can heal any mental issues.
Sally Field (“Steel Magnolias”, “Forrest Gump”), Sonoya Mizuno (“Ex Machina”), Gabriel Byrne (“The Usual Suspects”, “In Treatment”), Jemima Kirke (“Girls”), and Julie Garner (“The Americans”, “Waco”, “Ozark”) are also involved.
As well as a high-profile cast, each of the show’s ten episodes is directed by Cary Fukunaga of “True Detective” fame; writer Patrick Somerville of “The Leftovers” adapted “Maniac” from the 2015 Norwegian show of the same name.
Emma Stone won the Best Actress Oscar in 2017 for her performance in “La La Land”, having been nominated two years before through “Birdman”; Jonah Hill, though still better-known for action comedies “21 Jump Street”, “Superbad” and “This is the End” was twice-nominated for his supporting roles in sports business drama “Moneyball” and the financial drama “The Wolf of Wall Street”. JB
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