Christopher Guest helped pioneer the mockumentary genre. Now it looks like he may be bringing his famous filmmaking style to Netflix.
The next Netflix original movie will be Guest's Mascots, the streaming giant announced over Twitter on Tuesday. The tweet included a graphic with a description of the project:
"Welcome to all the drama, intrigue, and occasional excitement of the 8th World Mascot Association Championships, where a group of 'unusual' men and women, with big heads and furry suits, compete to win the prestigious Gold Fluffy Award and be crowned Best Mascot in the World."
Although this description doesn't explicitly say so, it seems likely that Mascots will be told in Guest's well-known mockumentary style, which we've seen in past films like This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show. Most of Guest's mockumentaries deal with competitions or show business – sometimes both in the same film – so a mascot championship seems like a fitting subject for the filmmaker to tackle.
Guest tends to work with many of the same actors in his films, including Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy and Fred Willard. It's likely that we'll see some familiar faces from that pool of actors in Mascots as well, although there's no word yet on casting for the movie.
Mascots will be the latest push from Netflix to produce original feature-length film content — the first of which, Beasts of No Nation, will premiere on Netflix and in select theaters October 16. Netflix also signed a four-film deal with Adam Sandler last October, which The Ridiculous Six will kick off December 11. That will be followed by the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend premiering in the first quarter of 2016. The Judd Apatow-produced Pee-wee's Big Holiday will premiere in March 2016. Netflix also has several other original movies in development, including Brad Pitt's War Machine.
Mascots is scheduled to premiere exclusively on Netflix in 2016.
A group of "unusual" men and women with big heads and furry suits? We're in. #Mascots is coming to Netflix in 2016. pic.twitter.com/zKl9L1LChg
— Netflix US (@netflix) August 11, 2015
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