Robert Rodriguez Made a Film You Can’t See for 100 Years

Most of us can’t even plan ahead to what we’re having for dinner or what we’ll be doing this weekend, let alone make plans for, say, 100 years from now. But director Robert Rodriguez and John Malkovich thought that far ahead for their new film project, which no one will get to see for 100 years — so basically no one who is currently living will ever see this movie, aside from the people who made it.

Which director’s films would you put in a time capsule for future generations to discover? Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee… Those are the iconic directors making contemporary films that have — and will — endure the test of time.

But a new project luxury cognac brand Louis XIII is challenging that concept, enlisting Robert Rodriguez and John Malkovich to make a film that they’ll place in a time capsule not to be opened for 100 years — in honor of the company’s 100-year aging process for its cognac. Appropriately, the film is called 100 Years, and it’s been placed in a time-locked safe that will open on November 18, 2115. Oh to be alive and read the reviews on that day.

100 Years also stars Marko Zaror and Shuya Chang, and while no one would explain the film’s plot, the Louis XIII folks tell iO9 that it’s set in the present, while Rodriguez calls it “emotionally charged.” They’ve made three teasers for the movie, each offering an idea of what the movie could be like, though none of them feature footage from the finished film.

The plan is for Louis XIII to send 1,000 specially-designed metal movie tickets to 1,000 “influential” people, encouraging them to pass these tickets down to their future descendants so they can attend the screening in 2115.

If this idea sounds familiar, then you might remember the Future Library art project that was launched last year. Each year for the next 100 years, one author will contribute one book to the installation housed in a secure room in an Oslo library. The completed works will not be made public until 2114, with prize-winning author and poet Margaret Atwood contributing the inaugural book last year.

But that art project is a little different from what Rodriguez and Malkovich have done for Louis XIII — for one, it’s not about publicity, but it’s also more creatively significant in that it challenges our ideas of what makes literature and poetry classic; is it the finished product, the time period, or the author? Or maybe all three?

Here’s a better question: if a new Robert Rodriguez movie isn’t released until we’re all dead, does it make a sound?