Steven Soderbergh on Friday unveiled the first trailer for Command Z, a comedic sci-fi series formerly known as The Pendulum Project, which will become available for streaming only on the site for his production company, Extension 765, on July 17th.
In the trailer, which you can view at the link below, we’re introduced to a disembodied scientist (Michael Cera), appearing on a screen, who advises a trio of employees on a mission through time and space that they’ll soon be undertaking — via a wormhole within a washing machine. “This is historic, literally,” the character says. “We’ll be dipping into the past to make some critical fixes there that will, in turn, make the future, our present right now, more livable, fair and decent for everyone. We’re going back to the moment that I’ve determined was America’s last inflection point — to 2023.”
The trailer is accompanied by a blog message addressed to “765rs” by a presumably fictional representative for Soderbergh named Fabrizia del Dongo, whose name bears a striking resemblance to that of a character in the 19th century French novel The Charterhouse of Parma. In it, Del Dongo says that this “series of some sort” (or is it “a movie cut into pieces”?) will be “apparently about ninety minutes long,” consisting of “eight episodes of varying length.”
Among the show’s other stars are Roy Wood Jr, Liev Schreiber and comedian Stavros Halkias.
Read Del Dongo’s full message teasing the new series below:
Dear 765rs
Mr/Dr Soderbergh, but this most recent development is next level and can’t be kept to myself for reasons you’ll soon understand. This very morning, our fearful leader explained that in three days (July 17th for those who don’t want to do the math) we will be “dropping” a series of some sort called COMMAND Z. If I seem hedgy, it’s because A) None of us have seen it; and B) it’s apparently about ninety minutes long, but there are eight episodes of varying length, so is it an actual series or just a movie cut up into pieces? Frankly, I don’t care because what this means IN THE REAL WORLD is those of us in the Fulfillment Center (aka The BB, aka BLOFELD’S BASEMENT) are about to get some heavy traffic and oh, did I happen to tell you I ALSO RUN THE I.T. DEPARTMENT? So: we are absolutely fulfilling Mr/Dr Soderbergh’s directives to the letter but I’m just letting you know: even the smallest increase in traffic is going to make my life a living hell, possibly forever. So think about that and then think about this: When I asked Mr/Dr Soderbergh why he’d done this, why he’d made this project and why he;d made it in secret, he said, “Hope, Fabrizia. Hope and laughter.” Honestly, I don’t even know where to start with this guy.
Have a great weekend. See you Monday (or not) !
Fabrizia del Dongo
In addition to Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Soderbergh most recently directed and exec produced the miniseries Full Circle, which debuted on Max yesterday.
