In addition to Blanchett and Vikander, the all-star cast also features Charles Dance, Roy Dupuis, Denis Ménochet, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rolando Ravello, Takehiro Hira and Zlatko Burić, with the three directors also penning the screenplay.

“Rumours follows the seven leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies at the annual G7 summit, where they attempt to draft a provisional statement regarding a global crisis,” reads the logline.

“These so-called leaders become spectacles of incompetence, contending with increasingly surreal obstacles in the misty woods as night falls and they realise they are suddenly alone,” it continues, with the project described as a “darkly absurd exploration of power and institutional failure in a slowly burning world”.

Related: Best film and TV tours for 2024

The film has received generally positive reviews since its premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in May, accruing an 83% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from its first 29 reviews.

A selection of reviews can be read below:

“The film is winningly defined by its peculiar admixture of national pride and self-deprecation.”

“This triumphantly stupid ensemble comedy… casts the G7 leadership adrift in a B-movie, essentially turning the heads of the leading liberal first-world democracies into the Mystery Machine gang from Scooby-Doo.”

“The ineffectiveness of rhetorical politics and symbolic diplomacy is kookily but ruthlessly skewered in Rumours, a wildly entertaining shaggy-dog satire.”

“The whole thing sometimes feels like a skit show that just barely holds together until the filmmakers and cast bring it all home… Like the best comic fantasies, Rumours has more than a grain of tragic truth to it.”

Rumours is released in cinemas on October 18 in the US and December 6 in the UK.

September 2024 gift ideas and deals

Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media.  His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.