Controversies might be trailing Olivia Wilde's sophomore feature Don't Worry Darling, but this does not seem to be hampering the ongoing marketing for the psychological thriller which will hit screens for the first time at the ongoing 79th Venice International Film Festival. New details from the upcoming picture have emerged from a Q&A session Wilde held with Maggie Gyllenhaal for Interview Magazine where the actress detailed among many things the inspiration behind its antagonist character, Frank (Chris Pine) the venerated leader of the secluded and falsely idyllic city of Victory.
Wilde revealed that for the character Frank, she took inspiration from Jordan Peterson, a real-life public figure who is revered by the incel community. Wilde described the Canadian clinical psychologist and author as a "pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community." Further explaining the online subculture that has been categorized as a hate group by several civil rights advocacy organizations, Wilde added that; “[Incels are] basically disenfranchised, mostly white men, who believe they are entitled to sex from women. And they believe that society has now robbed them — that the idea of feminism is working against nature, and that we must be put back into the correct place.”
Wilde added that due to people like Peterson, the incel community is "actually succeeding in many different ways.” She further described him as "someone that legitimizes certain aspects of their movement because he’s a former professor, he’s an author, he wears a suit, so they feel like this is a real philosophy that should be taken seriously.” Don't Worry Darling will center on newlyweds Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack Chambers (Harry Styles) who initially appear to be living an ideal life in the Victory project before Alice's curiosity leads them to discover that they are indeed in the clutching grasp of the city's founder Frank who is only using them as pawns in executing his sinister motives beneath the idyllic scenes of the island city.
Don't Worry Darling will make its world premiere at the ongoing Venice Film Festival which opened on August 31 and will run through to September 10. The psychological thriller will then hit US theaters on September 23. Warner Bros handles the marketing and has since begun releasing promotional materials including a trailer and a motion poster which are both heavy on sexual themes, something that Wilde has said audiences should expect more of. Check out the official synopsis and trailer below.
"Alice (Pugh) and Jack (Styles) are lucky to be living in Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. Life is perfect, with every resident’s needs met by the company. All they ask in return is unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause. But when cracks in their idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade, Alice can’t help questioning what they’re doing in Victory, and why. Just how much is Alice willing to lose to expose what’s really going on in paradise?"