Naturally, real-life couple Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem were immediately quizzed on how much their marriage spilled into Florian Zeller’s Venice competition feature, Bunker, at the movie’s press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Ahead of the movie’s red carpet premiere, Zeller, Bardem and Cruz were joined by co-stars Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger on the Lido to promote the film, following a renowned architect (Bardem) offered the chance to secretly design a survival bunker for a billionaire who is convinced that the end of the world is near. As he lets himself be seduced by this morally ambiguous project, his wife (Cruz) begins to question their marriage.
Zeller confessed he was inspired to write the screenplay after reading an article about Meta tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg building an underground bunker in Hawaii. “It was a secret project, meaning that everyone involved in this project had to sign an NDA, to make sure no one would know,” said the French filmmaker. “For some reason, the information went public, and I thought it was a fascinating paradox because this man who made a fortune based on the idea of connecting people together [through Facebook and Instagram], was working on a plan B to isolate himself from the rest of the world.”
