James Gray is receiving some of the best reviews of his career for Armageddon Time (my review here), a semi-autobiographical family drama set in 1980s New York. The story follows the Graffs, a hard-working Jewish family in Queens as they deal with turbulence of the times: finances, prejudice, and their rebellious son Paul (Banks Repeta), a cinematic version of Gray himself.
Anne Hathaway stars in the film as family matriarch, Esther, a PTA member who wants nothing more than to see her family rise through society’s ranks in order to give her children the best possible future. While Armageddon Time doesn’t seem like the kind of movie that would demand a sequel, Gray expressed to ThePlaylist that he actually wants to do one, only with the focus on Hathaway’s character next time…
“But I’m really interested in making a kind of ‘[Armageddon Time’] sequel about what happened to my mother,” Gray said. “The story goes in a very unexpected place because my father actually did achieve some financial success but wound up getting it all confiscated by the government when he got into legal trouble. At the same time, my mother found out she was dying. And so, it’s going to be, I think, something about that period.”
Gray added that there’s a scene in the movie that actually sets up Esther’s future terminal diagnosis. In real life, Gray’s mother died of brain cancer.
I imagine the only way this happens is if Armageddon Time is a success. The film opens next week on October 28th.
