Esmail

Sam Esmail sacrificed his hearing while making his new apocalyptic thriller Leave the World Behind. You see, in the Netflix adaption of Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel, there’s a noise so terrifying that it incapacitates the entire country — and Esmail had to get it just right. “As a filmmaker, I was so excited to explore that aspect because sound is everything to me,” Esmail says. “There’s a fine line of making a sound haunting without actually having the audience get up and leave. I pushed it so much initially in the…

A poster for the original Metropolis by Laurent Durieux.Image: Laurent Durieux/Dark Hall MansionAlmost ten years ago, Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail began work on a passion project of his. Bring Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi masterpiece, Metropolis, back to life as a long-formtelevision series. It was a dream that was very close to becoming a reality with Apple TV+ getting ready to start production later this year. However, due to the writer’s strike, the project has been permanently shut down.Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas…