Remarkably Bright Creatures has arm up on Emmys competition

Sally Field as Tova and Marcellus the octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures Photo by Netflix

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In the upcoming Netflix movie Remarkably Bright Creatures, you’ve got Sally Field. You’ve got a curmudgeonly octopus. You’ve also got a screenplay based on author Shelby Van Pelt’s bestselling 2022 novel. It all adds up to what promises to be a thoughtful and entertaining film — and it’s already generating Emmy buzz.

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Field plays 70-year-old widow Tova Sullivan, who works the night shift at an aquarium alongside a custodian played by Lewis Pullman. Tova develops an unlikely bond with a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus (voiced by Alfred Molina), and together they all start to unravel a mystery that once seemed buried in her past.

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Co-written and directed by Olivia Newman, Remarkably Bright Creatures hits Netflix on May 8. Colm Meaney, Joan Chen, Kathy Baker, Beth Grant and Sofia Black-D’Elia also star.

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“Many people ask me, ‘How was it working with an octopus?’” Field said at a recent For Your Consideration Emmy event, per the Gold Derby website. “I don’t want to spoil the magic, but in reality, there was nothing ever there. Except, that’s not true. Because (cinematographer Ashley Connor), many times, was in the tank, filming out at Tova. So, in a lot of ways, Ashley was Marcellus!”

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Field, the 79-year-old winner of two Oscars and three Emmys, also helped develop the film as it travelled from book to screen. She said at the Emmy event that being so involved helped her get to into the mind of her eight-limbed co-star.

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“By the time we actually were shooting this, I had worked on it for so long, in such detail, that I knew Marcellus so well,” she said. “I could hear him. I could see him. I could feel him. … I’ve been an actor through my entire existence, so I do have this imagination that I can rely on. He was there.”

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Remarkably Bright Creatures now sits at third place in Gold Derby’s Emmy probability rankings for best movie (formerly called best television movie). It has an 81 per cent chance of landing a nomination.

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Newman, who also directed the 2022 film adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing, told People magazine that Remarkably Bright Creatures is the “warm hug that we all need right now.”

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“It is a movie that looks at heavy topics like grief and longing for connection and feeling at a crossroads in life and not sure what your purpose is, but it’s also a joyful film,” she said. “It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, but ultimately there’s a hopefulness to it.”

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