Jason Bateman’s demons come back to haunt his brother, played by Jude Law, in the trailer for the pair’s anticipated Netflix limited series, Black Rabbit.
In the series created by Zach Baylin and Kate Susman, Bateman and Law play estranged brothers, with younger Bateman, Vince, reuniting with big brother Jake and bringing chaos with him to Jake’s hotspot bar and restaurant at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Black Rabbit.
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“What do you think happens when you don’t pay back a loan for three years?” asks Jake (Law) to his brother, who says he has a “big number” in debt. But Jake has financial struggles of his own trying to maintain his success. The trailer shows the brothers running from several life-and-death scenarios, as Vince (Bateman) drags his brother into his mess.
All eight episodes of Black Rabbit release on Netflix Sept. 18.
Here’s the logline: “Set against the backdrop of New York City’s high-pressure nightlife scene, Black Rabbit centers on two brothers who are pushed to the brink by their duty to family and their pursuit of success. Jake Friedken (Law) is the charismatic owner of Black Rabbit, a restaurant and VIP lounge, poised to become the hottest spot in New York. But when his brother, Vince (Bateman), returns to the business unexpectedly, trouble soon follows; opening the door to old traumas and new dangers that threaten to bring down everything they’ve built. Black Rabbit is a propulsive thrill ride and character examination about the way an unbreakable bond between two brothers can shatter their world and everything in its orbit.”
Bateman told Netflix of his attraction to the series that “there was an evergreen relatability to the story, even though we’re in this grimy subset of society you don’t get to see often. At the heart of it, it’s really about two brothers who love each other but don’t match — one’s a screwup, and the other is much more buttoned up, or is better at hiding his dysfunction. Everybody can relate to that. Everybody’s either got a sibling or a friendship where you love being with one another, but it’s kind of dangerous; where that person usually gets you in trouble, but they’re really exciting to be around.”
Law added that the series was inspired by several New York restaurants from the ’90s. “I knew the restaurants, and I frequented them. I went to them and knew the folks who ran them,” he said. “I loved the idea of re-creating that. The behind-the-scenes hustle and bustle of everyday performance that occurs in restaurants and bars such as these. The facade that some of the folks that have fronted these establishments have in comparison to what’s going on behind the scenes, juggling the financial and emotional. I just thought that that was a really, really rich and fertile place for story.”
The cast also includes Cleopatra Coleman, Amaka Okafor, Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, Troy Kotsur, Abbey Lee, Chris Coy, Dagmara Dominczyk, Odessa Young and Robin De Jesus, with Amir Malaklou, Don Harvey, Forrest Weber, Francis Benhamou, Gus Birney, John Ales and Steve Witting.
Bateman, his Ozark co-star Laura Linney, Ben Semanoff and Justin Kurzel each direct two consecutive episodes, in that order.
Black Rabbit is executive produced by Bateman, Michael Costigan and Roxie Rodriguez’s Aggregate Films; Law and Ben Jackson’s Riff Raff Entertainment; Zach Baylin and Kate Susman’s Youngblood Pictures; Brian Kavanaugh-Jones from Automatik; Andrew Hinderaker, Zac Frognowski, Justin Levy, David Bernon and Erica Kay.
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