What in the tapdancing heck is VOIR?

It's finally time for a major announcement and I couldn't be more relieved

It’s Wednesday, October 13, 2021, and here’s where we are…

AFI Fest is coming up in November, and this morning, they announced the majority of the line-up for this year’s edition.

I am particularly excited about this because I’ll be attending AFI Fest at the Chinese Theater to see the premiere of my episode of the new David Fincher anthology series VOIR, and I hope any of you who are in Los Angeles will come out to see the screening as well.

So, then, what the hell is VOIR?

title treatment courtesy of Netflix

VOIR is, simply put, the thing I have been working on for the last few years and the project I am most excited about right now. It is a streaming series for Netflix that is hopefully not like any other show about movies that you’ve seen.

image copyright Drew McWeeny/do not reproduce

This image was from the set when I was shooting part of my segment at the Orpheum Theater in downtown LA. That teaser trailer really only gives you a hint of the tone of what we’re doing, but I can tell you that this is a series of stand-alone video essays about movies. We’re not trying to sell you anything, and we’re not interviewing anyone about what Marvel movies they’re doing. We’re each tackling a totally different idea, something that intrigues us or upsets us or that has to do with our connection to the movies. Each one runs between 10 and 30 minutes, and they were produced with the full support and involvement of Fincher and David Prior, who you may know as the director of The Empty Man.

I’ve known Prior for almost 30 years at this point. I didn’t know Fincher at all before this. I got a very exciting email out of the blue from him in December of 2017, and after a couple of secret meetings with a group of other critics, Fincher took this show to Netflix. We made our first episodes a little while ago, and then the pandemic kicked in, and everything sort of went into slow-motion for a while. We kept working on plans for what else we’d like to do, but that all depends on what people think the first time around.

I’m super-excited to get this in front of you. Right now, the only thing scheduled is the AFI Fest screening, but I’m sure Netflix will figure out when and how to release this for everyone else. Right now, I’m just so relieved I can finally acknowledge that it exists, that this is a thing I’ve been working on.

NetflixFilm @NetflixFilm

From executive producer David Fincher… VOIR, a new documentary series of visual essays celebrating cinema, from the mind of one of film’s modern masters. Premiering at AFI Fest and coming soon to Netflix.

It still seems strange to me to call David Fincher “boss,” but that’s the relationship I’ve had with him for the last few years now. I can’t think of a better gig than just talking about movies with Fincher. I was a fan of his work before this, but I’m an even bigger fan now of who he is as a collaborator. He has been incredibly good about building this space where each of the contributors was able to come in and make something that is very personal and very much an expression of how they see movies. We all worked on our own pieces as self-contained units, allowing us to treat each one as a distinct thing. I love that Fincher hasn’t tried to push his opinion about anything on me or my editorial voice. We disagree about plenty of films, but in the way I’ve always enjoyed disagreements between film fans. Our disagreements allow us to better define what’s important to each other about movies. I know him so much better at this point, and vice versa. Drilling down and discussing all kinds of different aesthetic ideas is a great way to learn what someone’s creative priorities are. I’ve learned a ton about myself from the process of developing this show, and I sincerely hope we get to make a ton of them because I guarantee that will only continue the longer we do this.

If you’re in LA, please… come out and support the show. You’ll get to see a Q&A with Fincher, and you’ll get to see me absolutely out of my mind with anxiety in the lobby beforehand. That sounds like fun, right? It’s November 13th, and tickets will be available via the AFI’s official site.

In the meantime, I’ve got plenty more I’m working on for you here in this newsletter. If you haven’t subscribed yet, why not?

And over at The Last ‘80s Newsletter (You’ll Ever Need), I’m getting ready to kick off the May 1980 newsletters. Subscribe to that one now as well!!

Seriously. It’s the best month we’ve done yet. I am determined to positively spoil you rotten with content that is worth your time and attention, and I hope you spread the word. I need to keep growing both of these newsletters, and you guys are a big part of helping to make that happen.

I’ll be back Friday with my review of The Last Duel, the first Media Diary in a while, and a whole fistful of Quick Bites for you as well. Then we’ll get back to Bond next Monday, wrapping things up with Roger Moore before we head into the very weird years with Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan.

Thanks for being here and reading this, and I can’t wait to share more about VOIR with you in the next few months.