Jake Gyllenhaal definitely enjoys playing oddball characters, which is something that he did very well in Nightcrawler.

Now Jake and writer-director Dan Gilroy have teamed up once more, with the duo working on Velvet Buzzsaw.

Boasting a star-studded ensemble that includes Rene Russo, Toni Collette, Zawe Ashton, Tom Sturridge, Natalia Dyer, Daveed Diggs, Billy Magnussen, and John Malkovich, the movie looks like it should score pretty high on the creepometer.

Here’s NME with the description:

Zawe Ashton’s Josephina discovers a series of haunting paintings by a recently deceased and unknown artist, and takes them to the ridiculously named art dealer Morf Vanderwalt (Gyllenhaal) to sell on. The pair begin raking in the cash (“Demand has people ready to kill,” claims Toni Collette’s gallery owner Gretchen), but things take a terrifying and bizarre turn when the paintings begin to not only come to life but attack people.

I guess in some cases, works of art are just plain laughable, and in others they’re deadly.

Roll tape:

Quite a bit to unpack there.

Perhaps Gilroy reckons the world of high art is a little snooty:

The paintings seem only to attack the wealthy or corrupt because they hold “a disgust for the world of money.” There’s also an unbelievable scene where Gretchen is murdered in the gallery overnight and discovered by visitors the next day who think she’s part of an exhibit. “We’re trending on Instagram,” Josephina quavers.

Hey, that’s only slightly more ridiculous than the Bird Box Challenge.

Velvet Buzzsaw will begin streaming on February 1.

[source:nme]