Netflix’s star-studded new hit, “Don’t Look Up,” was directed and created by Denverites

Netflix’s new sci-fi comedy, “Don’t Look Up,” was its most-watched release over Christmas weekend and an instant global hit, the streaming service said Monday.

Released Dec. 24, the grab-bag of dark jokes and social appeals stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, dressed-down but still sparkling, as hapless astronomers, with Meryl Streep as a venal U.S. president; Cate Blanchett as a glassy-eyed TV host; Timothée Chalamet as a streetwise skateboarder; and (literally) dozens more marquee names.

Coincidentally, it’s directed by Denver native Adam McKay (“The Big Short,” “Anchorman,” “Vice”) and co-created with Denver-based journalist and podcaster David Sirota. Their story follows the scientists’ futile quest to warn of an approaching comet that will wipe out all life on Earth. Despite reaching the highest tiers of U.S. politics, media and technology, Dr. Randall Mindy (DiCaprio) and Ph.D. candidate Kate Dibiasky (Lawrence) are met with shocking indifference and mockery.

Whether people view “Don’t Look Up” as a metaphor for climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic (during which the movie was shot), it directly portrays the fear and ideology over facts that are hastening our preventable doom, its creators told The Denver Post this week. And some of the vicious responses to it only prove its point.

McKay, a former “Saturday Night Live” head writer and an executive producer of HBO’s hit “Succession,” and Sirota, an investigative journalist and senior advisor on Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, are no doubt polarizing. While some praised “Don’t Look Up’s” cultural relevance, acting and writing, others have eviscerated it as a preaching-to-the-choir indulgence that’s as artless as it is smug.

We caught up with McKay and Sirota this week to ask about the story’s origins and why the critical response matters. This Q&A has been condensed from separate interviews and edited for length and clarity.

Q: I’m curious how the story came together. Who wrote which parts?

McKay: About three years ago I was looking to address the climate crisis in a movie. I had written up four or five ideas but was still looking when David Sirota and I were commiserating about the world’s woeful response to what is literally the greatest threat to life in human history.

David, who is not only a great journalist but is quite funny, said, “It’s like a comet is about to hit Earth and no one cares.” And immediately I said, “That’s it. That’s the idea.” I realized we need to be able to laugh when dealing with something as overwhelming as the collapse of the livable atmosphere.

Sirota: We’ve spit-balled a lot of ideas over the years and you never know what’s going to (work). But we went back and forth on (this story) and Adam had all these ridiculous ideas for scenes. So when he said he was going to write it up, I thought, “Maybe I’ll never hear about it again.” And it must have been about six weeks after that when I got a script.

He moved it forward and started naming people he wanted to cast and I said, “Well, that sounds cool but … .” And within a span of about two weeks, he was like, “We got DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence and even Meryl Streep’s interested!” I was like, “Is this happening? Is this really happening?”

Q: Did you have — or did you try to suppress — expectations about the media and critical reception of this film, given that it indicts them?

McKay: I was very surprised by the media’s response. They were so angry and dismissive. Our test audiences had never had that reaction. But then I realized “Ohhhh, this is a sore subject for them.”

Big money has put a lot of talented people in media in a tricky spot. They aren’t “encouraged” to talk directly about certain subjects. Especially when those subjects are uncomfortable for advertisers or ownership. And the way they frame that silence is by calling it “subtlety” or “being smart.” It’s fascinating but also quite depressing.

Sirota: I really have never seen anything like this. Everybody has a right to their opinion on whether it’s a good or bad movie, but I believe the tenor of some of the criticism reflects a judgment or an analysis of the message of the movie. If it didn’t have that message, that tenor would be much less frantic and furious. It’s a hero story of these scientists trying to muddle through institutions and systems that make it impossible to do the right thing.

A movie like this is supposed to make people think, but I’m worried people have closed their minds to it because of some association with the director, or because they hate me, or the baggage they bring. But its ambition is not to be clever for critics, it’s to reach the widest possible audience with this message.

Q: Adam, you only lived in Denver for a couple of years after being born here before moving to Massachusetts. With apologies for the boosterism: Have your visits back over the years given you a sense of place or identity that you don’t feel elsewhere?

McKay: I spent a whole summer in Aurora with my grandmother back in 1990 before I moved to Chicago to pursue theater and comedy. I’ll never forget it. I worked for an Environmental Citizen Action group going door to door and after work would shoot pool at bars off of Colfax Avenue.

If the livable atmosphere and American democracy weren’t both about to collapse, I’d probably make a movie about that summer. I’m sure many critics would prefer I do.

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