‘Opus’: Ayo Edebiri & John Malkovich World Premiere Takes Sundance On A Wild Trip

Leave it to A24 to always make an impression at a festival — and tonight they left the entire Eccles transfixed and locked in their seats with the premiere of Mark Anthony Green’s directorial debut Opus. It was like everyone was in movie church. While there were some laughs in the topsy-turvy movie, it’s fair to say that the crowd was indeed stunned.

The pic is a trippy genre movie which follows reclusive rock star Moretti (John Malkovich) who emerges after being decades away to invite a group of journalists to his cult compound.

Events go sideways in a Midsommar kind of way, and The Bear‘s Ayo Edebiri plays one of the journalists whose part of the experience, and is surrounded by all the crazies — ala her character on The Bear.

Green is a former GQ writer and editor. While there wasn’t one pop idol that Moretti was inspired by, he threw out names such as David Bowie, Alice Cooper, and even Bruce Springsteen. The most important job was to convince the audience that Moretti was the most important celebrity in the world before the characters boarded the bus. In sum, a quintessential offbeat Malkovich character.

“The religious research was the least fun,” said Green who wrote a 300 page bible of sorts for the cult surround Moretti. He also took some inspiration from the Shakers. Green says that they believed “in craft”. (In a humorous moment during the Q&A, Malkovich piped up as he thought he heard Green say that that they believed “in crack”).

Of great importance for Green was having Malkovich sing: “I insisted that the first thing he do was that John sing a song.” A24 ponied up and it all went down during pre-production.

Green began to get to know Edebiri before The Bear became a huge success, sending them notes that she’s his lead Ariel. “I was like holy shit. This is Ariel, I freaked out. I mailed this to my exec at A24, and said ‘This is her!’. Then the show came out and everyone was like ‘This is her!’”

Pic stars Juliette Lewis, White Lotus‘ Murray Bartlett, and Amber Midthunder

The movie opens on March 14 in theaters.