Filmmakers usually strive to make their productions as entertaining and engaging as possible, but the people behind “Baa Baa Land”, an epic 8-hour movie scheduled for release this September, set out to do just the opposite. With no dialogue, no plot and no human actors, just lots and lots of sheep, the so-called “world’s dullest movie” was designed to put viewers to sleep.
Produced by Calm, a company that produces mindfulness meditation products, Baa Baa Land is being advertised as “the ultimate insomnia cure” and “better than a sleeping pill”. It was filmed in Essex, England, and consists of slow motion shots of sheep in a field. Basically, nothing happens for eight hours, but that was the whole the whole point. Producer Peter Freedman, said that he believed it could be the dullest film ever made, adding: “We hope that audiences will, too”.
Photo: Calm.com
“In a world of constant stress and information overload, of anxious days and restless nights … comes the chance at last … to pause … to breathe … to calm our racing minds and fretful souls… to sit and stare … at sheep,” a narrator says in the 86-second trailer for the slow film. “Baa Baa Land is the first screen epic entirely starring sheep. A cast of hundreds… all of them sheep. Count them if you can – but don’t stress if you can’t. Sit back, wind down, drift off … to sheep.”
“It’s a reaction to films like The Bourne Supremacy, which have an average shot length of two seconds,” Peter Freedman told iNews. “We wanted something more relaxing, soothing and calming. Everyone is stressed and anxious and having trouble sleeping, and it’s a chance to pause and breathe, to wind down a bit.”
Photo: Calm.com
The American-financed, British-made film will premiere at the Prince Charles Cinema in London’s West End this September. “We’re in discussion about U.S. and wider distribution and in talks with an American TV channel,” Calm co-founder, Michael Acton Smith, said. “We don’t expect it to break box-office records but believe there is at least a niche audience for it.”
The makers of Baa Baa Land are hopeful that the movie will get a cult following, and claim that there is “every possibility” for a sequel. “Maybe have even more sheep for even longer?” Freedman jokingly said. “We’d have to bend our minds on how to make it even duller, which would definitely be a challenge. We’re not ruling it out that it may even be 16 hours. Maybe even 24. Who knows?”
While Baa Baa Land definitely sounds like it could be the dullest movie ever, it does have a very serious competition in Paint Drying, a 10.5 hour movie about drying paint. I guess you’ll have to watch them both to see which is more boring.
