South by Southwest hasn’t released its full slate of film and television programming — that comes on February 2 (film) and February 9 (TV) — but it has announced a few of its big premieres: Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, Preacher, Midnight Special, Chevalier, and Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru.
The most exciting of these premieres is, obviously, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, which is the first original (and feature-length) Pee-wee Herman product to be released since the 1990 conclusion of the show Pee-wee’s Playhouse. The film sees the return of Paul Reubens in the iconic role of Pee-wee, and will also star Joe Manganiello and Alia Shawkat.
The other big feature announcements are Midnight Special and Chevalier. Midnight Special is written and directed by Take Shelter’s Jeff Nichols. It stars Michael Shannon, Adam Driver, Kirsten Dunst, and Joel Edgerton, and basically looks like the best superhero movie of the year. Chevalier, on the other hand, looks like this year’s best bet for a Nasty Baby-esque comedy-turned-drama weird-out.
Preacher is comedian Seth Rogen’s first foray into the world of TV directing. It’s based on the Vertigo comic of the same name, and stars Dominic Cooper as the titular preacher. It will be hard-boiled, and it will be gritty. (Rogen will not, as of now, appear in the series.)
The last of the remarkable announcements is the documentary Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru. Directed by Joe Berlinger, I Am Not Your Guru will take a close look at the operation of Tony Robbins, one of the biggest names on the motivational speaker circuit. It could either be a disastrously boring PR play by Robbins, or it could be a fascinating look at the underbelly of motivational speaking, which has got to be a thing that exists.
More information can be found over at Variety .