Post-apocalyptic stories have always been a popular sub-genre of science fiction. There’s something oddly interesting about seeing the aftermath of a fictional catastrophic event that alters the lives of on-screen characters, or rather, the ones who are left. This year offered one of the more unique takes on such a premise, with moviegoers who loved Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun‘s Love Me, or those who just love sci-fi, in for a treat after Paramount+ announced that the post-apocalyptic film will be on its streaming service on June 16, 2025.
Love Me premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in January, where it was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize. It was released in U.S. theaters on January 31, 2025, after it was announced that ShivHans Pictures was going to release the film with Bleecker Street. WME Independent acquired the film’s international sales rights. The movie, which follows a buoy and a satellite who meet online long after human extinction (yes, you read that right), will be available on Paramount+ with Showtime via Bleecker Street’s continuous partnership with the service. During their journey together, Me/Deja (Stewart) and Iam/Liam (Yeun) discover what life on earth was like for humans and in the process find out who they are, and what it means to love and live (and, presumably, laugh).
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This post-apocalyptic romance is a fresh and uniquely modern take on love, relationships, self-discovery, and humanity’s potential.
Love Me blends animation and live-action and was the feature debut of writer-directors Sam and Andy Zuchero. ShivHans Pictures, 2AM, AgX, Kevin Rowe, Luca Borghese, Ben Howe, Shivani Rawat, and Julie Goldstein produced the flick. In February, Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun did a joint interview with Indie Wire discussing how Love Me wasn’t making a statement about AI, with Stewart instead stating that the movie was hard to pin down.
“I think the movie itself is just, in a very cool way, really hard to pin down. I think that’s the point. It’s very hard to define. It’s hard to do interviews about it. It was hard to talk about on set. We were always wondering if we were having the same conversation, like existential spiral stuff, and that’s, like, totally why we make movies. I just thought it was kind of a breath of fresh air.”
Why Kristen Stewart Chose to Join the “Odd” Sci-Fi Outing
It’s always exciting to learn the reason why an actor chose a specific project. Kristen Stewart’s filmography is something to highlight, simply because she didn’t allow Hollywood to box her in with her Twilight Saga character Bella Swan. She chose to be a part of the Love Me cast because of the “odd” plot and interesting, deeply human message.
“I wanted to be in a movie that starts off as just a lonely voice, and then finally sort of breaks away into some silly cartoon — which being a human often feels like — and then you go a little further, and you have weird makeup on. You’re sort of doing an odd, human impression, and by the end, we’re shooting in 35mm, and we’re touching each other for real. I thought that was just such an interesting kind of experience to have. […] It just really prods at what it is to connect and how desperate we are to do so, with all of the shape-shifting we do in order to get close to each other and our own sense of self. It felt so daring to me, acknowledging that the truth is so transient instead of trying to make some groundbreaking statement.”
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- Release Date
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January 31, 2025
- Runtime
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92 Minutes
- Director
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Sam Zuchero, Andy Zuchero
- Writers
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Sam Zuchero, Andy Zuchero
- Producers
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Julie Goldstein, Ben Howe, Luca Borghese, Shivani Rawat, Kevin Rowe, Connor Flanagan, Christine D’Souza Gelb
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