In the end, we got Mountainhead, an HBO original film on which he makes his directorial debut, and which returns the writer to the world of the super-rich, but with a different slant.
The speed at which it has all been put together was also a cause for concern. The film was announced in January of this year, before starting filming in March. Now, just a couple of months later, it is about to be released.
Happily, I can reveal that any worries were unfounded – Mountainhead is a phenomenal piece of work, a thoughtful, at times harrowing treatise on our current age of technological insanity, which justifies every decision made both behind and in front of the camera.
There's Randall (Carrell), the philosophising 'intellectual' of the group who has amassed great wealth, power and connections through his work in a number of differing ventures.
Then there's Venis (Smith), the richest man in the world who just launched a new AI product on his social media platform, which allows users to create hyper-realistic deepfake content.
Finally, there's Jeff (Youssef), the young up-and-comer whose profile is rising as a direct contrast to Venis – he has created another AI product which is able to accurately distinguish between real and fake content.
However, things start to spiral as the effects of Venis's new product role-out become known – ethnic tensions flare up around the world, civil unrest is provoked and various countries' economies end up on the brink of collapse.
This explains both how Armstrong and the team were able to get the film out so quickly, but also why. It's an incredibly timely piece, and in a world where media, tech and politics are all running at hyper-speed, it's ripped-from-the-headlines, mirror image of reality may only remain specifically relevant for so long.
The dialogue, for instance, is trademark Armstrong – whip-smart, cutting and, above all, laugh-out-loud funny. There are so many quotable lines here in such a short space of time, many of which rank alongside some of the best Succession ever produced.
If you thought Logan, Kendall or Roman were despicable, just wait until you meet these a**holes. Every one of them is almost unbearably immoral while also being utterly cringe-inducing, and their increasingly bare-bones philosophical hypothesising, coupled with their genuinely-held god complexes, makes them both fascinating as a character study but also insufferable.
Even Jeff, the apparent 'angel' to Venis's 'devil' in the AI industry, and the only one who seems even mildly perturbed by the world imploding outside their doors, is still a pretty heinous human being – he's just earlier on his journey than the other three.
However, any more time and it might be difficult to sustain. If Armstrong ever wants to return to these characters and prove me wrong, then I will be seated – but I imagine he had a similar thought process, and himself found these characters too objectionable to spend 10 hours with.
For instance, from the moment he first appears and attacks his doctor's lack of intelligence, Carrell sets out his stall, playing up the condescension and sliminess we've seen him touch upon in other, recent roles.
Schwartzman is suitably pathetic and risible as Souper, a self-debasing sycophant who has surrounded himself with people who, by sheer force of comparison, have genuinely made him believe he is in some way unsuccessful, and therefore worthlessness.
Meanwhile, Smith proves to be the real highlight here, playing a character who is at once the most obnoxious and outright villainous of the bunch, yet also the funniest and most exciting to watch.
With the encroaching signs of societal collapse becoming known only via frequent news alerts, and with us stuck with some of the worst, least empathetic people possible, the first half of the film plays out like something of a modern day horror film.
Every scenario, and every blasé reaction from the group, feels disturbing realistic. Venis's cynical nihilism – "nothing means anything and everything's funny and cool" – is instantly recognisable, as is Randall's obsession with living forever via some form of internet upload.
They insist they're the smartest people in the world, yet struggle to cook anything for themselves – the most basic facets of humanity are alien, or certainly disinteresting to them.
Then, the second half takes a turn. Obviously we won't go into spoilers here, and it really is part of the fun to realise what this film is becoming as it plays out, but it's fair to say that while the tone changes and the story shifts, it doesn't get any less enjoyable.
If anything, it just gets more funny and more ridiculous, even as it gets darker and darker. (To note - this review's headline does not mean there's a supernatural twist - this isn't a Sinners or Sugar situation.)
Still, it's no matter – the rest of the 100 minutes which have preceded it are so riveting and thematically rich, and take you on such a journey, that it's very hard to complain.
For years now the world itself has been becoming more extreme and ridiculous, in a way that the film directly addresses. There was always a question of how parody works in a populist age and a time as absurd as the one we live in.
The fact that Mountainhead in many ways feels like a horror film is perhaps its greatest feat of all. As Venis notes, laughing at something can normalise it. Mountainhead is very, very funny, but it never does that.
Mountainhead will air on Sky and NOW on 1st June.
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