Plans to shoot new film next year

Armando Iannucci is working on a satirical movie about social media.

He is writing a script with Jon Brown, showrunner on The Franchise comedy that he co-created about shooting a superhero movie.

Speaking to podcaster Daniel Merrifield, aka The Movie Dweeb, he said: ‘I’m always interested in where power and influence is, so social media is something actually that Jon and I have been working on together, on a film script, which we hope to shoot next year.’

He said it would be ‘set in that world of that next generation of your Zuckerbergs, your Musks and Peter Thiels, and all those people’ - he said referring to the founder of Facebook, owner of X and  Facebook investor respectivelyIannucci added: ‘I think that's where we're at now, where so much of opinion and information is controlled by these people who have never been trained in the ways of being global influencers, it just happened, and somehow they have to see if they can rise to the occasion or not.’

@themoviedweeb Armando Iannucci is making a movie based on Elon Musk. ???? #armandoiannucci #elonmusk #elonmuskmeme #markzuckerberg #fyp ♬ som original - ????????????????????????????????????

This summer, Iannucci criticised Musk for posting pictures of riots in the UK, saying ‘civil war is inevitable’ – but none of the peaceful anti-racism marches that attracted thousands of people.

And earlier this month he told the i of his fears for the social media oligarchs, saying": ‘We’re seeing in this [US] election the enormous influence they have, not just in financially contributing but their control of the news agenda.

‘And also the fact that they feel they’re separate from the law. They’re so great that taxes and regulations shouldn’t really apply in their case. That’s something that’s both frightening and weirdly comic in a strange way,  "We’re not saying there should be no law! It just shouldn’t apply to me, that’s all!"’

Iannucci’s adaptation of Dr Strangelove, starring Steve Coogan, is currently running in the West End.

Published: 24 Nov 2024