A24 Boards Michael Shanks’ Next Film ‘Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel’ After ‘Together’ Success

‘Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel’ will be the next directorial effort from Michael Shanks, whose feature-film debut ‘Together’ was a rousing critical and commercial success this summer. ‘Together’ is a body horror film based around a romantic relationship in which closeness is taken to some truly grisly extremes. It’s no surprise that this budding arthouse genre filmmaker subsequently caught the attention of A24, which has greenlit the forthcoming film.

A 4-Year-Old Spec Script Coming to Fruition

‘Together‘ may have put Michael Shanks on the map only a couple of months ago, but ‘Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel’ has been on his mind for a long time now. He first wrote the screenplay at least 4 years ago, when it appeared on 2021’s Black List, which is an annual roundup of the most promising unproduced scripts. After ‘Together’ launched him into the spotlight, Shanks announced that ‘Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel’ would be his next film, and A24 scrambled to beat other companies to the punch of acquiring the project.

“Sci-Fi Thriller” Meets Saw-esque Escape Movie?

Though ‘Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel’ is described by Deadline as a “sci-fi thriller,” the upcoming A24 movie’s premise sounds far more like that of a horror movie. Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel will follow a protagonist who wakes up to find himself inside a strange hotel room. It’s a very disorienting environment, from which escape appears almost impossible. As described on Scriptshadow, a blog dedicated to reviewing screenplays, “his only chance for escape is through teamwork – with himself.”

At this time, neither Shanks nor A24 has publicly revealed anything more in regard to the plot of Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel. Therefore, we can only speculate as to the meaning behind its truly puzzling title – or to be more precise, as to the title’s truly puzzling repetition, since we at least know that “Hotel” refers to the movie’s setting. Perhaps “Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel” is intended to highlight a certain mental repetitiveness that one might feel while trapped in the same place for a great length of time?

Production Breakdown – What We Know

In addition to writing and directing, Michael Shanks will also produce ‘Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel’ alongside Mike Cowap, Adam McKay, and Todd Schulman. Cowap is an executive producer of Princess Pictures, while McKay and Schulman are producers in the company HyperObject Industries. Now that he has a studio (A24) and a production team, Shanks has just begun the endeavor of casting Hotel Hotel Hotel Hotel.