George Clooney - Suburbicon

Suburbicon is a peaceful, idyllic suburban community with affordable homes and manicured lawns... the perfect place to raise a family, and in the summer of 1959, the Lodge family is doing just that. But the tranquil surface masks a disturbing reality, as husband and father Gardner Lodge must navigate the town’s dark underbelly of betrayal, deceit, and violence. This is a tale of very flawed people making very bad choices. This is Suburbicon.

The Coen brothers wrote the original Suburbicon in the 1980’s. For a lot of reasons, the film never got made and was shelved. Last year my partner Grant Heslov and I were working on a story that happened in Levittown, Pennsylvania, in 1957, based on a short documentary called Crisis in Levittown. I called up the Coens and asked them if we could take a crack at the script by moving it to a period piece and setting it in a town like Levittown. They said “great” and we were off and running.
This is a film I wanted to make because I liked the themes. It seemed like a good time to talk about building fences and scapegoating minorities, but wrapped in a weird thriller. I always loved the idea of a murder in a perfect town and everyone looking in the wrong direction.
It’s a story of a time and place that unfortunately we never really have gotten away from.