Role: Drug Lord
Genre: Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Director: James Franco, Bruce Thierry Cheung
Written by: Bruce Thierry Chung, Jay Davis
Running time: 90 min
Release Date: May 25, 2018 (United States)
Additional Cast: James Franco, Suki Waterhouse, Jeffrey Wahlberg
Plot
Inside a desert oasis, a queen (Lucy Liu) lays dying as her son Prince (Jeffrey Wahlberg) travels across barren waste lands to find a near-mythical medicine to save her life. After evading violent raiders on motorbikes led by the Warlord (James Franco) and his enforcer (Cliff “Method Man” Smith), Prince meets Ash (Suki Waterhouse), the Warlord’s robot sex companion-assassin who’s in search of her own soul. As Prince is captured by the Druglord (Milla Jovovich), the Warlord’s forces roar in–and Prince fights to save the remnants of humanity.
Filming & Release
In May 2016, it was announced James Franco, Milla Jovovich, Twin Shadow and Margarita Levieva joined the cast of the film, with Franco directing alongside Bruce Thierry Chung, with Dark Rabbit Productions and AMBI Group, financing the film, with Monika Bacardi, Vince Jolivette and Jay Davis producing. That same month, Lucy Liu, Method Man, Suki Waterhouse, Jeffrey Wahlberg and Snoop Dogg joined the cast of the film.
It was released on May 25, 2018, by Lionsgate Premiere.
Critical Response
Future World was panned by film critics. It holds a 0% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 6 reviews, with a weighted average of 1.6/10. On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 10 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating “overwhelming dislike”.
Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review writing: “A low-rent, post-apocalyptic sci-fi tale that doesn’t succeed as either homage or parody of such obvious inspirations as the Mad Max series, Future World proves as original as its title”. Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club also gave the film a negative review writing: “Franco and Cheung’s unorthodox approach of directing almost the entire film in random, nomadic Steadicam shots with wobbly zooms alienates the simplistic plot”.