Mountainhead has been making the rounds on the internet as an iconic comedy/satire film about the lives of billionaires who band together and set out to solve an international crisis.
Starring Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, and Ramy Yousef, the film is written and directed by Jesse Armstrong. You may know him as the creator and writer of the iconic HBO show Succession. Speaking of, did you know that a Succession character was nearly going to star in this satire film?
Lukas Matsson was almost going to be a part of Steve Carell’s Succession
Portrayed by Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård, fans may know the character Lukas Matsson from the HBO show Succession. Being the founder and CEO of GoJo, Matsson was the primary antagonist (and later the secondary antagonist) in Succession.
During the series finale, Lukas Matsson took over Waystar Royco and became the owner of the enterprise. Considering the events of Mountainhead and the fact that both projects were created by Jesse Armstrong, many considered Mountainhead to be a spin-off of Succession.
Armstrong even considered adding Alexander Skarsgård’s Lukas Matsson as one of the billionaires who band together to tackle the international crisis. However, when the creator stopped for a chat with TV Guide, he stated that it just felt wrong to combine the two universes.
Alexander Skarsgård’s a brilliant actor, and I was like ‘oh, maybe — could we go off and see him?’ As the piece developed, although the look of the film I think people will find quite similar to Succession — I borrowed a lot of talent and leant on a lot of colleagues from that show.
Armstrong understood that the Steve Carell movie should be kept separate from Succession because the events that happened in the two projects would have a very big conflict of interest.
The tone of it’s actually kind of different. It just felt wrong. I’d be tonally misleading people if they thought, oh, Roman Roy might be switching on and seeing the same news as these people.
Although the creator decided not to include Alexander Skarsgård in Mountainhead, Jesse Armstrong said that he could totally see the movie working had he added the character of Lukas Matsson into the movie.
Jesse Armstrong still seems unsure of his decision
Succession was a black-comedy drama show that showed the lengths people would go for greed. Mountainhead has a similar concept, but the difference is how far these billionaires will go to protect their legacy.
Despite certain similarities between the show and the movie, Armstrong decided against the movie having any connection with the hit TV series. However, he doesn’t seem to be sure of his decision, as during his talks, the creator talked about what would happen if Lukas Matsson potentially joined the movie.
He’d fit in pretty well. He has that confidence bordering on arrogance that they have. [Matsson] was keen on these big questions of, ‘Is France gonna make it?’ He says in the series.
He finished his statements by saying: It’s the kind of stuff I could hear these [Mountainhead] guys talking about for a couple of hours. Ultimately, although Alexander Skarsgård was seriously considered to be a part of it, Armstrong eventually decided against it.
Mountainhead, starring Steve Carell, has been well-received by the world as the film currently stands on a rating of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Mountainhead and Succession are available to stream on HBO Max (USA).
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
