Nicole Kidman returns to the silver screen for this decade’s most critically acclaimed role: star of the AMC Theatres commercial. There hasn’t been a cinematic moment more talked about, more tweeted about, than her turn in the ad that airs during AMC previews. Because that one minute of perfection elicits tears, laughter, gasps, and even terror (why is she staring, unblinking, at the screen before her?), as Kidman sits in the empty theater and tries to explain why movies give us “indescribable feeling.†Screenwriter Billy Ray wrote the OG commercial, and, in an interview with Vanity Fair, revealed that a sequel is in the works. “I got a text from the chairman of AMC about a month ago asking me if I would write the next one, and of course the answer to that is yes,†Ray said. “It’s already written.†He also confirmed that it was the AMC star herself who asked the prolific screenwriter to write the thing in the first place. He first agreed to do it for free, but then his agent made him come to his senses. Apparently, the success of the ad surprised everyone. “Nobody saw this coming,†Ray added. “Nobody.†It’s so true.
Ray and Kidman are trying to make an even better commercial the second time around with “a very, very different approach that is a little bit of a wink to the one we’ve already done.†Hope this isn’t an Icarus moment — Kidman reprising this role for another minute of perfection could very well earn her her own special Academy Award.