If You're Missing 'Succession', Jesse Armstrong Turns His Attention to Tech Billionaires in the Full Trailer for 'Mountainhead'
The creator of 'Succession' is back in eat-the-rich mode in this new HBO Max movie, which stars Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith and Ramy Youssef.
"We are the smartest men in America. We literally have the resources to take over the world." When four tech billionaires on a snowy getaway in a sprawling mansion start talking that way, as the characters in Mountainhead do in the new film's just-dropped full trailer, no one else is likely to benefit. Other than audiences, that is, because this is the latest project from Succession creator Jesse Armstrong — and it marks his return to the screen after that huge HBO hit wrapped up in 2023.
Here, the world is in chaos. Violent confrontations, atrocities, nations teetering both politically and economically: that's the situation. On a luxe weekend in icy climes, four titans of tech watch on. What could the US President have to say when he calls, then? "That your platform's inflamed a volatile situation, circulating unfalsifiable deepfakes, massive fraud, market instability" is one prediction that Mountainhead's sneak peeks have been teasing.
Armstrong both writes and directs — and is still clearly in eat-the-rich mode as the ultra-wealthy quartet at the centre of his new movie respond, or don't, to an international crisis perhaps of their making. Steve Carell (Despicable Me 4), Jason Schwartzman (The Last Showgirl), Cory Michael Smith (Saturday Night) and Ramy Youssef (Poor Things) play the cashed-up crew, aka Randall, Souper, Venis and Jeff, who aren't above shouting about their supposed greatness from mountaintops and writing their net-worth figures on their bare chests.
Mountainhead might be Armstrong's first feature as a director, but it's a straight-to-streaming flick, hitting HBO Max in Australia on Sunday, 1 June, 2025.
Co-starring alongside Carell, Schwartzman, Smith and Youssef: Hadley Robinson (Anyone But You), Andy Daly (Night Court), Ali Kinkade (Lessons in Chemistry), Daniel Oreskes (A Real Pain), David Thompson (It's What's Inside), Ami MacKenzie (Pulse) and Ava Kostia (Love Across Time).
Although Armstrong is best-known for Succession — understandably so given that it has earned him seven Emmys — he's an Oscar-nominee for In the Loop's screenplay, also co-created Peep Show, was a writer on The Thick of It and Veep, co-penned Four Lions and wrote a season-one episode of Black Mirror, among other credits.
Check out the full trailer for Mountainhead below:
Mountainhead streams via HBO Max from Sunday, June 1, 2025.
Images: Macall Polay/HBO.
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