Alfonso Cuarón Reunites with Emmanuel Lubezki for TV Series Starring Cate Blanchett
Zack Sharf
Alfonso Cuarón has set his directorial return with “Disclaimer,” a television series adaptation of Renee Knight’s novel of the same name. The project, Cuarón’s first directing effort since “Roma,” is set up at Apple and is the first series to be greenlit under the deal between the filmmaker and Apple that was first announced in 2019. Cuarón will write, direct, and executive produce the entire series, which has Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline attached to headline.
The project is Cuarón’s first TV series since the 2014 NBC series “Believe,” which aired only 12 episodes before being canceled.
Apple’s official synopsis for “Disclaimer” reads: The series “stars star Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft, a successful and respected television documentary journalist whose work has been built on revealing the concealed transgressions of long-respected institutions. When an intriguing novel written by a widower (Kline) appears on her bedside table, she is horrified to realize she is a key character in a story that she had hoped was long buried in the past. A story that reveals her darkest secret. A secret she thought was hers alone.”
Cuarón’s production company Esperanto Filmoj is behind “Disclaimer,” and he’s an executive producer alongside the company’s Gabriela Rodriguez. Additional executive producers include Anonymous Content’s David Levine, Dawn Olmstead and Steve Golin. Blanchett is also executive producing, with Renee Knight serving as co-executive producer.
In an exciting bit of news, Apple confirms Cuarón will be reuniting with cinematographer and longtime collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki for the Apple series. The two have worked together on countless projects, including “Y Tu Mamá También” and “Children of Men,” and won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Cinematography thanks to their work on “Gravity.” Cuarón served as the cinematographer of “Roma” himself, winning his own Oscar for Best Cinematography, while Cuarón took a bit of a filmmaking hiatus before signing to shoot David O. Russell’s upcoming new movie.
Joining Cuarón as cinematographer on the series is Bruno Delbonnel, who has become the Coen Brothers’ go-to director of photography having shot “Inside Llewyn Davis,” “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” and Joel Coen’s upcoming solo outing “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” Delbonnel has also worked with Joe Wright (“Darkest Hour,” “The Woman in the Window”) and Tim Burton (“Dark Shadows,” “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”), and he’s perhaps most acclaimed for serving as cinematographer on Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Amélie.”
While “Disclaimer” will serve as Cuarón’s first self-directed effort under his Apple deal, he is currently in production as a producer on the Apple Original Film “Raymond and Ray.”
