The red band trailer for Jim Hosking’s Ebony and Ivory just dropped, and it looks like it might be even stranger than expected. A surreal, fictionalized version of Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney’s first meeting, the film stars frequent Hosking collaborators Gil Gex (as Wonder) and Sky Elobar (as McCartney), who both appeared in The Greasy Strangler and An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn. Gex also brought his signature weirdness to Hosking’s Adult Swim series Tropical Cop Tales, and judging by the trailer, that same chaotic energy is dialed all the way up here.
The general premise is already off the rails: Stevie Wonder rows across the Atlantic to crash at Paul McCartney’s farm in rural Scotland. From what’s shown in the trailer and teased in synopses, things only spiral from there. There are veggie nuggets, bizarre silences, and plenty of behavior that doesn’t follow any recognizable logic. It’s being described as a kind of anti-biopic, more about mood and absurdity than telling any factual story.
The film had its premiere at Fantastic Fest 2024 and is set for a limited theatrical release on August 8, 2025. Andrew Hung, one of the founding members of the electronic drone band Fuck Buttons, who also scored The Greasy Strangler, returns to score this one, and Drafthouse Films is distributing, with Drafthouse founder Tim League serving as executive producer.
Hosking has been teasing clips and stills on Instagram for a while now, and even with that buildup, the trailer suggests something even more deranged than fans were likely expecting.
Hosking is already in pre-production on his next film, Gleek! which “centers on a hapless young man who finds his overactive salivary glands qualify him for a secret, underground contest.”. I can’t wait.
