Two titans of film are preparing to grace our television screens with a juicy psychological thriller this fall. Two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett and five-time winner Alfonso Cuarón have teamed up for Disclaimer, a seven-episode limited series based on the best-selling 2015 novel of the same name by Renée Knight.
Per an official description, Disclaimer follows Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett), an acclaimed journalist who built her reputation revealing the misdeeds and transgressions of others. When she receives a novel from an unknown author, she is horrified to realize she is now the main character in a story that exposes her darkest secrets.
The first teaser for the series dropped August 7, and features a series of provocative images—including Blanchett getting nearly hit by a car and a couple walking straight into the sea. In a dramatic and foreboding voice-over, she narrates, “Beware of narrative and form. Their power can bring us closer to the truth, but because of our own deeply held beliefs and the judgments that we make, they can also be a weapon with a great power to manipulate. Ladies and gentlemen, be aware.”
The series stars Sacha Baron Cohen (as Blanchett’s husband) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (as her son). Kevin Kline has a leading role, and Lesley Manville, Leila George, Louis Partridge, and model and Squid Game star Hoyeon Jung are also in the award-winning cast. Disclaimer has hints of Blanchett’s roles in both 2022’s Tár and 2006’s Notes on a Scandal—tales of betrayal, consequences, secrets, and the possible endings of careers. Most recently, she played a nun running an orphanage in the fantasy drama The New Boy, and will star alongside Alicia Vikander in the buzzy dramedy Rumours later this year.
Disclaimer marks Cuarón’s first return to television since 2013’s Believe, a science fiction series he created for NBC that featured Kyle MacLachlan. The Mexican filmmaker is probably best known for 2018’s critically acclaimed Roma, which starred Yalitzia Aparicio as a housekeeper working for a middle-class family in 1970s Mexico City, based loosely on the life of Cuarón’s family’s maid. The film received three Oscars, including Best Director for Cuarón. He also won Best Editing for 2013’s Gravity, a hit space drama that starred Sandra Bullock and George Clooney (were we ever so young?)
Disclaimer is in good company among a handful of series giving lauded film stars room to play in the television space. Nicole Kidman immediately comes to mind, taking on several straight-to-streaming roles in recent years, including Nine Perfect Strangers, Expats, The Undoing, and, of course, Big Little Lies. Natalie Portman made her Apple TV+ debut with crime thriller Lady in the Lake earlier this summer.
Disclaimer will debut on Apple TV+ with the first two episodes on October 11, followed by a new episode every Friday until November 15.
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