Bob Odenkirk says that Normal will have more of an “M. Night Shyamalan-kind of level of suspense and mystery” compared to 2021’s Nobody.
On February 8, Deadline broke the news that Meg 2: The Trench’s Ben Wheatley will direct Odenkirk in a new action film called Normal. The movie is written by Derek Kolstad, who also wrote Nobody and a number of the John Wick movies.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Odenkirk discussed how Normal will be a completely different film compared to Nobody.
“Obviously we don’t want to give anything away,” he said. “But the first thing I said [to Kolstad] was, this has an M. Night Shyamalan-kind of level of suspense and mystery. There’s a sustained sequence of figuring out what really is going on, including some major red herrings.”
Odenkirk also said, “When they presented the idea [for Normal] to me, it just had this quality to it [that] I don’t think I’ve seen in an action movie in forever. I’m going to call it suspense mystery. You could argue that the Bourne films, especially the early ones, have that element, where he’s trying to explore and solve a mystery, the mystery of his own past. There’s that sort of dimension in this story, something that Derek expanded on, which I think was the reason Ben Wheatley came on board.”
What is Normal about?
The synopsis for Normal reads, “Normal follows Ulysses (Odenkirk), who is thrust into the temporary role of the sheriff for the small sleepy town Normal after the previous one’s untimely death,” the official synopsis reads. “When the town’s bank is robbed by an out-of-town couple, Ulysses arrives on the scene to find that the town is hiding much more sinister deep-seated secrets under its surface and everyone – from the bartender to the priest – is in on it. And now Ulysses, who’s up-till-now focused only on running away from the demons of his past, must uncover the full extent of this criminal conspiracy.”
Normal does not yet have a release date. Nobody, meanwhile, is currently streaming on Amazon Freevee.
