‘Wormwood’ Trailer: Errol Morris Uncovers A CIA Conspiracy
Sooner or later, Netflix gets everyone. Renowned documentary filmmakerErrol Morrisis bringing his unmatched talents to the streaming platform withWormwood, a genre-blending mix of documentary and narrative drama.Wormwoodexamines the can’t-believe-it’s-true story of one man’s search to discover what caused his father’s death. Was it suicide, or did a more nefarious conspiracy involving the CIA play a part? TheWormwoodtrailer teases the shocking saga ahead of its release this month.
Errol Morris has frequently employed dramatic reenactments for his documentary features. His acclaimed, ground-breakingThe Thin BlueLine, which recreated events involving the murder of a police officer at a traffic stop,broke the mold and seemingly inspired every true crime documentary made ever since. But his latest docWormwoodtakes things to the next level. While still using Morris' trademark talking-head style interviews with subjects,Wormwoodalso features long stretches of dramatic narrative reenactments featuring actorsPeter Sarsgaard,Molly Parker,Tim Blake Nelson,Jimmi SimpsonandBob Balaban. The results are striking, and really unlike any documentary in recent memory. ThisWormwoodtrailer gives you a glimpse of what to expect.
Wormwood trailer
Wormwoodfocuses on Frank Olson (played by Sarsgaard), a CIA employee who met an untimely end in 1953 when he leapt to his death from the window of a thirteenth-floor hotel room. Or did he? Olson’s family, including his sonEric Olson, began to suspect there was foul play involved with the death, sparking a lengthy investigation that spanned decades and uncovered previously buried CIA secrets. Here’s the official synopsis:
Morris is yet another high profile filmmaker who has been wooed by the folks at Netflix. The streaming giant already counts acclaimed filmmakers like Bong Joon-ho, Angelina Jolie, Noah Baumbach, and Cary Fukunaga among its ranks. Morris recently talked toFilm Commentabout working with Netflix and creating the episodic series:
“[I]t’s episodic, so you have, in some sense, six separate films which are joined together. There’s that ongoing issue of, how do you keep people interested, the necessity of constructing cliffhangers at the end of each episode to keep people coming back for more. And it allowed me to play all kinds of different games than I would have been able to play in something that was a straight feature. Maybe not impossible but certainly more difficult.”
