THE STREETS OF 1980s Queens are a fair few miles from Neptune, the destination of James Gray’s last movie Ad Astra, or the Amazon from The Lost City Of Z, his film before that. For Armageddon Time, Gray has pivoted to something far more personal and pared-down: a drama inspired by his childhood. “I really wanted to understand why it is that I want to make films,” he tells Empire. “So I said, ‘Okay, forget all the nonsense — focus on making something small and personal. And get the best actors that you can to tell your story.’”
Those actors include Succession’s Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway playing a version of Gray’s harried parents, and an exceptionally twinkly Anthony Hopkins as his grandfather.