Woody Harrelson to release world’s first “live cinema” movie in 2017

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

"No one has ever shot a movie and live-broadcast in the cinemas at the same time, no one's ever been that stupid," joked Woody Harrelson in the short teaser for LOST IN LONDON. Although there's been live theater streamed into cinemas before, Harrelson's upcoming project will be "a real movie with 14 different locations and a 30 person cast." While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Harrelson laid out the inspiration for LOST IN LONDON as well as the insanity which comes from tackling such a project.

Starring Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson and Willie Nelson, LOST IN LONDON is based on a real-life incident which happened to Harrelson back in 2002 when he broke an ashtray in the back of a London taxicab and set off a series of events which landed him in jail.

Well, if that hadn’t happened I never would have thought to do this. That was when I spent a night in jail here in London. But in this film, the whole night starts bad and keeps getting progressively worse. At the time, in real life, it was completely unfunny. But then later I thought about it later and I said, “There’s comedy in this.” I’d say it's a deep, soul-searching comedy. It’s about a guy who has it all and runs the risk of losing it all. And then hopefully ends up with this shot at redemption. I don’t wanna give away too much of what goes on in the plot. 

As a lover of both film and theater, Woody Harrelson had been looking for a way to merge the two for years, and even though he admits that "maybe it's impossible," they're going to try it anyway. The 100-minute film will be shot with one camera in one continuous take and will shoot in London on January 19th with its live theatrical broadcast kicking off at 6:00 p.m. PT/9:00 p.m. ET in more than 550 theaters. Harrelson and company have been busy rehearsing for the project in order to make sure that any and all possible obstacles are accounted for, but one element which will likely be a bit unpredictable is the London weather.

Oh, man, every night I wake up in the middle of the night and completely freak out. Rain is one of the things that freaks me out the most. Being London, there’s like a 50 percent change of rain, and rain would definitely not be our friend. We’ll figure out how to deal with the condensation on the camera and moisture on the body microphones and even just the sound of the rain hitting and how that affects the vocal track. That’s freaky stuff. But if it happens, it happens.

Woody Harrelson's other upcoming projects include an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic-novel WILSON on March 24, 2017 and WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES on July 14, 2017.