The scoop on superheroes in The Franchise

In villain origin terms, The Franchise fell in a vat of toxic waste about 10 years back during a lunch date between producer-directors Sam Mendes (1917) and Armando Iannuci. While Armando was busy with political satire series Veep, Sam was suffering through his second film for the James Bond franchise. After hearing Sam go off about the insanity of working on massive franchise titles (production on Skyfall, for example, had to shut down for 10 months when MGM went bankrupt), Armando quipped that these kinds of franchise woes would make a funny show. 

Then, while working on Avenue 5, Armando had his own run-in with Hollywood superhero shenanigans when he found out that he couldn’t get hold of an actor he wanted for just two days because the performer – one of Britain’s all-time great theatre actors – was going to be locked in Shepperton Studios for the next three months doing green screen work and shouting at non-existent monsters like a crazy person. 

And a supervillain was born!

To complete their power trio, executive producers Armando and Sam invited writer-creator Jon Brown (Succession, Veep and Avenue 5) to join them, as they spilled the tea on the often absurd realities of superhero movie work in The Franchise. The series takes us behind the scenes on the making of the fictional superhero movie Tecto: Eye of the Storm. Think of it as the Ant Man to “Maximum Studios’” Avengers-style title, Centurios 2, which is clearly sucking up all the studio’s love, money and attention. 

The Franchise digs into the awkward politics of making film while you’re a small cog in a massive machine, and it allows the writers to make use of some of the best (or worst) stories they’ve heard about superhero filmmaking behind the scenes as inspiration. Here are just five of our favourites.

PS: Scroll down for our top 10 series and movies about making series and movies on Showmax.

Binge The Franchise now.

1. The lights! My eyes!

In episode 1, based on a lighting note from Maximum’s big wigs, Tecto: Eye of the Storm director Eric (Daniel Brühl) decides to film an alien planet scene with two suns, overruling first Assistant Director Dan’s (Himesh Patel) warning about his new lighting rig for the scene, which is so bright and strong that it burns the eyes of their beefcake lead performer Adam (Billy Magnussen) and the film’s villain, played by famed theatre actor Peter (Richard E Grant). 

In real life, during the filming of Black Panther, Daniel Kaluuya (W’Kabi) had to go to the ER to get treatment for “sunburned eyes”. He and Lupita Nyong’o (Nakai) were both left with reddened, painful eyes thanks to a combination of filming under bright sunlight and reflection from the water, with the addition of the super-powered production lighting.

2. Frankenstein’s superhero

Building a superhero body from squishy mortal flesh is a dark science! From episode 1 onwards, Adam’s struggles getting into shape as Tecto mirror real-life comments from superhero actors on their absurd and even dangerous diets. From episode 1 when Adam is boasting about how tasty his turkey meat muscle milkshake is, to episode 3 when he worries about developing gynecomastia and breast cancer because of the growth hormone he’s taking, it just gets worse! At one point he’s worried that the one white hair on his back could be a sign that the growth hormone he’s taking, which was engineered to help sheep to pack on mass, is actually making him grow wool. And those dazzling lazer blue eyes? Special eyedrops, baby. Ignore the blue fluid leaking from his nostrils. 

In real life, actor Rob McElhenney got the realest of them all when he broke it down on his Instagram: “Look, it’s not that hard. All you need to do is lift weights six days a week, stop drinking alcohol, don’t eat anything after 7pm, don’t eat any carbs or sugar at all, in fact just don’t eat anything you like, get the personal trainer from Magic Mike, sleep nine hours a night, run three miles a day, and have a studio pay for the whole thing over a six to seven month span. I don’t know why everyone’s not doing this. It’s a super realistic lifestyle and an appropriate body image to compare oneself to.”

3. And…Cut! No, I mean, cut the whole scene

Superhero movies are notorious for last-minute charges, re-writes, re-shoots and cut scenes. In episode 1, Dan urges third assistant director Dag (Lolly Adefope) to make sure that their big dog producer Pat (Darren Goldstein) never wanders near Stage P. That’s where they’re hiding the 60 live Yoshino cherry trees that Eric had imported from Kyoto…before the scene requiring the trees was cut.

If you want to cry about wasted work, there’s a whole fan wiki on Marvel deleted scenes that never make it to screen. One of the most notorious was Bryan Singer’s 2006 movie Superman Returns, which scrapped the entire five-minute opening segment in which Kal-El returns to Krypton in a spaceship. Do the mental arithmetic on the sets and sequences that would involve, because it reportedly cost $10 million dollars – before it got flushed down the editing toilet. 

4. Femoids? (screeching noise)

The more the budget balloons, the bigger an audience has to be for the film to make a profit. So when Maximum Studios cancels a highly anticipated all-female film in episode 3, Pat orders Tecto’s new producer, Anita (Aya Cash), to shoehorn in some girl power, by expanding the role and powers of one of Tecto’s minor characters, the superheroine Lilac Ghost (Katherine Waterston plays Quinn Walker/Lilac Ghost). Stumped by the strong female character issue (clumsy equals complex, right?), they decide to give her a new weapon, the “Stick of Maximum Potency”, which would make her the most powerful being in the universe. 

From there it just gets more and more absurd, as Adam/Tecto starts complaining about feeling emasculated, and Dan rages at the issues with re-writing comic book canon.

Episode 3 tackles superhero movies’ biggest real-life villains: vicious hordes of comic book “purists” who dogpile any hint of diversity, with the mindset that white men are the default human and everyone else is political. Captain Marvel star Brie Larson getting literal death threats is just the tip of the world’s filthiest iceberg.

5. Oh no! It’s a cameo

You know that scene in a Marvel movie when Deadpool shows up and the crowd loses their minds? Tecto would love a little of that shine. But in episode 4, the crew find out that instead of getting a cameo from Many Man, the lead hero of Centurios 2, they’re being lent the third-rate character The Gurgler instead. Adding to the crew’s misery, Adam and The Gurgler’s performer Kyle (Nick Kroll) have a rocky past thanks to hurt feelings over a sitcom role. And an arms race begins with both actors begging the scriptwriters to beef up the comedy and quips for their scenes. Blame scheduling conflicts. Blame the fact that Tecto is a doomed production. The episode also takes us onto the set of Centurios 2, where we get to see what an actual big-budget production looks like.

In real life, we can now imagine the gnashing of teeth behind the scenes when Rick Mason from Black Widow got tapped for a Secret Invasion cameo, or when Elon Musk wedged his way into Iron Man 2.

Watch the trailer for The Franchise

Now suit up, grab your reality-warping goggles, and binge The Franchise.

Fun fact

To distinguish between the real crew and the in-story crew shooting Tecto, the Franchise crew wore yellow lanyards, while the performers playing crew on Tecto wore black lanyards. 

Now showing: 10 shows and movies about shows and movies

30 Rock

30 Rock is set behind the scenes of fictional live sketch comedy series TGS, and parodies the conflict between writer and performer egos, and clueless upper management, who’re all about the bottom line instead of the punch line. But above all, it’s about crazy people running amok. The show revolves around the production of the Sketch Show TGS with Tracy Jordan (originally titled The Girlie Show), but it also spoofs other genres, like when series lead Tracy Jordan (played by Tracy Morgan) is a guest on Sports Shouting, a talk show in which four sports commentators yell at each other. And just when it couldn’t get more on the nose, one scene features Tracy Jordan having a mental breakdown and shouting, “We’re all on a Show Within a Show! My real name is Tracy Morgan!”

Funny Woman

This comedy-drama series is adapted from Nick Hornby’s bestselling novel Funny Girl, as we see Blackpool beauty queen Barbara Parker (Gemma Arterton) trying to make it as a comic actress in London at the height of the swinging 60s. Under the stage name Sophie Straw, she steals the spotlight as the character Barbara in the smash-hit TV series Jim and Barbara to the point that the title later changes to Barbara (and Jim). Funny Woman reveals just how much energy the people making comedy have to pour into pushing back against other people who aren’t particularly interested in comedy, like broadcaster TED’s head of light entertainment, Ted Sargent (Alistair Petrie). Alas, it’s called the entertainment industry for a reason and as with most industries, the people holding the purse strings tend to be skittish of anything they don’t understand. 

The Curse

Comedy-drama series The Curse centres on married couple Whitney (Emma Stone) and Asher Siegel (Nathan Fielder) who’re in a small town filming their “cute” house flipping TV series, while trying to conceal the fact (from themselves and their audience) that they’re ruthless property developers who’re destroying a close-knit community to feed their ravenous egos. It’s deliciously believable as their producer Dougie (Benny Safdie) starts manipulating the situations and his stars to create his own warts-and-all, high-drama reality show version of Flipanthropy, titled Green Queen (the title changes in episode 6) in his efforts to make a scandalous show about a troubled couple whose marriage is falling apart even as their reno projects come together.

The Comeback

Get ready for a shows-within-a-show nesting doll! Comedy-drama series The Comeback centres on outrageously narcissistic actress Valerie Cherish (Lisa Kudrow), an older actress in Hollywood who’s gone from being America’s sweetheart, to Aunt Sassy in the upcoming sitcom, Room and Bored. What she lacks in self awareness and perspective, Valerie makes up for in delusion. And while she prepares to make the greatest show ever to grace the small screen, her every career misstep is being captured for posterity for her new reality series, also titled The Comeback. Valerie always gives her all at work, and by all, we mean 110% chaos and desperation.

Entourage

This hit series, based on the life of exec producer Mark Wahlberg, centres around handsome and successful actor Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) as he ascends to the top of the Hollywood heap thanks to his roles in movies like Aquaman (look out for James Cameron playing himself as Aquaman’s director). Vince’s entourage of bros, including his less successful actor brother Johnny “Drama” Chase (Kevin Dillion), can only watch and weep. The sit-up-and-take-notice insider in this story is Vince’s agent, Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), who gives us a look at the backstabbing, profane world of the financial deals and ego juggling that happens behind the scenes. 

Barry Season 3

Throughout Season 3 of crime dramedy series Barry (which centres on a hit man who wants to become an actor), actress Sally Reid (Sarah Goldberg) struggles to get her prestige drama TV series Joplin made. It’s a semi-autobiographical tale of a woman who’s trying to break the cycle of abuse to save her daughter. While there are glimpses of what the show might be like, what we really get from Joplin is a dissection of just how difficult and absurd studio filmmaking can be. Series co-creators Bill Hader and Alec Berg and their writers gleefully milk every terrible real-life Hollywood writers room, boardroom encounter, and vague studio head note they’ve had themselves, to bring Joplin to the screen. How vague are the notes? One studio exec (Vanessa Bayer) seems to speak only in noncommittal nods, grunts, mews and squeaks that no one could possibly hold her accountable for later! 

The Fall Guy

Director David Leitch started his big career move from stunt performer to director while he was still working as Brad Pitt’s stunt double on Fight Club. He went on to co-direct the first John Wick film (uncredited) and he soon added massive blockbusters to his portfolio, including Bullet Train, Deadpool 2 and Atomic Blonde. In this action comedy, he uses every scrap of insider knowledge he gleaned over the years to tell the story of how stuntman Colt (Ryan Gosling) lands up dodging gangsters and playing detective in real life after the star of a movie goes missing. Along the way we see all the drama and chaos his ex-girlfriend, director Jody Morena (Emily Blunt), has to navigate while trying to get her space opera film Metalstorm across the line. 

Avenue 5 Season 2

Armando Iannucci’s earlier look at behind the scenes shenanigans dominates the second season of Avenue 5. People on Earth are caught up in the drama surrounding the spaceship Avenue 5 and its long, dangerous trip back to Earth as supplies run low. Well, that’s not 100% accurate. What is “hella trending” throughout Season 2 is the show about Avenue 5 being lost in space, titled Avenue 5. 

Reality and TV cross streams as the real-life people aboard the Avenue 5 start feeling slighted about how they’re portrayed on TV, while some problems like the lithium shortage, which are supposed to be confidential, are leaked by the plot of the drama series. We even see TV platform executives debating about blowing up the real Avenue 5 to prevent their actions from threatening the show…and to give the show’s season finale an “explosive” ending.

Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos

Filmmaker Alex Gibney blurs the line between real life and TV with his two-part HBO documentary Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos, as he draws out parallels between The Sopranos’ (1999-2007) lead character Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and the series’ writer-creator, David Chase. The Sopranos fans can expect a compelling, human look behind the scenes of the show, including never-before-seen audition tapes, tales of the negotiations that went into making the series (former CBS head Les Moonves gets what’s coming to him), and even an intimate moment from James Gandolfini’s funeral. It’s like being in court for the trial of the century!

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Larry David plays writer-actor-producer Larry David in this comedy series about a terrible man surrendering to his worst impulses and getting called out on it. On-screen Larry shares many biographical details with the real Larry, including being the co-creator and writer of the hit sitcom series Seinfeld, but reality gets (we’re hoping) a twist as certain situations are (again, we hope) exaggerated and played with. All in all, it’s a comedy of manners set in a micro-society that encourages the bad behaviour of some of the most entitled people on Earth. That’s showbiz, baby.