🎥 “Whalefall” New Trailer: Austin Abrams Gets Swallowed Whole by a Sperm Whale in Brian Duffield’s Survival Thriller with Josh Brolin — Hitting Theaters October 16th
You’ve heard that old expression about being trapped inside the “belly of the beast.” It has biblical roots in the story of Jonah, who once found himself swallowed whole by a “great fish.” But these are just tales of old, meant to teach us a lesson; a metaphor for perseverance and faith. It’s not something anyone expects to experience literally.
But what if someone actually made a movie about being swallowed by, say, a whale? Well, someone did. And judging by the new full-length trailer, it could turn out to be one of the year’s more unexpected movie surprises.
Since the release of its teaser trailer a couple of months back, Whalefall has been generating a lot of online buzz, as it looks quite epic and will likely have people on the edge of their seats... and perhaps rethinking the ocean altogether.
After all, the ocean remains one of the last great unexplored frontiers. And few creatures have fascinated us quite like whales—real-life giant monsters. We’ve spent years fearing snakes, rats, spiders, bats, and sharks. Now Whalefall looks ready to add whales to the list.
Starring Austin Abrams, of Euphoria, Weapons, and the soon-to-be Resident Evil reboot, alongside his Weapons co-star Josh Brolin, the film is a survival drama-thriller about a young diver named Jay Gardiner (Abrams), who accidentally gets gulped up by a massive sperm whale, and now he has only 60 minutes of air left. Brolin plays Jay’s late father, Mitt Gardiner, whose hard-earned lessons may become the key to his son’s own survival as he reaches back to the things his father once taught him. We’re guessing, however, that surviving inside a whale’s belly was never one of those lessons.
Directed by Brian Duffield, the filmmaker behind the cult hits Spontaneous and No One Will Save You, and working from a script he co-wrote with Daniel Kraus, author of the novel on which the film is based, Whalefall also co-stars Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy, and Emily Rudd.
If you ever thought being eaten by a whale might be the most horrifying thing imaginable, well, this film seems determined to prove that surviving the ordeal might be even worse. And yes! Sperm whales are known for eating squid and small fish. But then again, that didn’t stop Pinocchio from ending up inside one.
Whalefall is due to wash ashore in theaters on October 16th.
🎥 “California Schemin” Trailer: James McAvoy Co-Stars and Directs the True Story of Two Scottish Rappers Who Fooled the Music Industry by Pretending to Be American, Starring Séamus McLean Ross and Samuel Bottomley — In U.S. Theaters October 9th
Here’s a question to ponder: Say you get to live out your lifelong dream. But in order to do it, you also have to live a lie. Could you do it? Could you keep it up, knowing one slip-up could expose the whole damn thing?
Scottish actor James McAvoy makes his feature directorial debut with California Schemin’, a hip-hop dramedy based on a true story about just how far you’d go to make your dream come true. Imagine something like Milli Vanilli, but if they did all their own rapping and were only lying about where they came from.
Starring Séamus McLean Ross and Samuel Bottomley, the film tells the incredible true story of Silibil N’ Brains, two rising rappers who, in the early 2000s, were on the verge of their big break. The problem? They were actually a couple of Scots pretending to be American, complete with fake California accents and a made-up backstory explaining why they were living in Scotland.
In a genre built on authenticity, Silibil N’ Brains—aka Gavin Bain (McLean Ross) and Billy Boyd (Bottomley)—were building their entire music career on a fabrication, convinced that if people knew they were Scottish rappers, they wouldn’t be taken seriously. The thing is, it worked. It worked almost too well, as they found themselves on the verge of signing a record deal, going on a global tour, and performing alongside other artists. But sometimes a lie takes on a life of its own. That’s when keeping the story straight becomes harder than telling the truth.
Also starring Lucy Halliday and Rebekah Murrell, with McAvoy appearing as record-label boss Anthony Reid, California Schemin’ dramatizes a story previously featured in Jeanie Finlay’s 2013 documentary The Great Hip Hop Hoax.
The film already opened in the UK earlier this year and is now set to hit U.S. theaters beginning October 9th, with further expansion on October 16th and 23rd.
🎥 “Ghost Soldier” Trailer: Jim Caviezel Goes to War Against Corporate Land Grabbers in William Eubank’s Old-School Action Thriller — Arriving In Theaters November 6th
What are the core elements of a good Western? Well, you gotta have a hero who doesn’t say much. He’s fighting for something worth protecting. And when trouble comes looking for him, he doesn’t back down or run away. Throw in some ruthless land grabbers and a good old-fashioned fight over who gets to call the land their own.
So, how do you bring that into a modern setting? Easy. No more horses. No more cowboy hats or six-shooters. Make the hero a former Special Forces soldier and swap the Old West arsenal for tactical gear and high-tech weaponry. Hell yeah!
That’s basically the setup for this new Jim Caviezel action thriller, Ghost Soldier, which feels like an old-school Western dropped into the modern day. There’s a little ’80s action-movie attitude in there too. You know the kind, where the bad guys are just plain bad, and the good guys can be even worse when someone deserves what’s coming to them.
Caviezel stars as Henry “Fitz” Fitzgerald, a former Special Forces soldier and advanced weapons developer who has withdrawn from the world and settled into a quiet, off-the-grid life in his Wyoming hometown. But when a powerful foreign corporation moves in and tries to seize his neighbors’ land, Fitz decides it’s time to come out of retirement. Which means asking these corporate goons to leave the property immediately... and making damn sure they don’t come back, in a very Steven Seagal kind of way.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an action movie without some pushback and a whole lot of retaliation. So, cue the high-tech weaponry, serious gunfights, and Fitz showing these guys exactly why picking a fight with him was a very bad idea.
Co-starring Garret Dillahunt, Carlos Gómez, Olivia Thirlby, Beau Knapp, and Shea Whigham, the film is the latest from director William Eubank, the filmmaker behind the cult sci-fi horror flick Underwater and the military action-thriller Land of Bad. He’s also known for his 2014 Sundance breakout hit The Signal.
Ghost Soldier seems to be tapping right into Eubank’s fondness for tactical hardware, while also showing plenty of love for the kind of old-school action flicks that once had names like Stallone and Schwarzenegger up on the marquee.
The film is slated to hit theaters November 6th.
🎥 “Wildwood” New Trailer: A Teenage Girl Enters a Hidden Forest to Rescue Her Baby Brother in LAIKA’s New Stop-Motion Fantasy Adventure From Director Travis Knight — Coming to Theaters October 23rd
Okay, we’re going to admit it. That new He-Man movie was surprisingly awesome. And maybe it didn’t deserve all that hate... nor the box-office beating it took this summer. But here’s the most impressive part: the same creative team behind Masters of the Universe was also working on this new LAIKA joint. Now that’s a pretty impressive one-two punch, if you ask us.
Director Travis Knight and screenwriter Chris Butler, who just worked together on bringing He-Man to the big screen, are now turning their attention to something completely different: a dark, handcrafted stop-motion fantasy adventure that looks ready to tug at the heartstrings just as much as it dazzles the eyes. And given their track record (they’re also the team behind Kubo and the Two Strings and ParaNorman, two of LAIKA’s most beloved films), this new stop-motion adventure could turn out to be something pretty special when it arrives this October.
Wildwood is a fairy tale-like fantasy that follows Prue McKeel, a tenacious teenage girl who witnesses a murder of crows snatch her baby brother and carry him deep into the forest. With her classmate Curtis along for the journey, she sets off into a hidden magical world filled with talking animals, warring factions, bandits, and ancient powers—all while trying to find her brother and bring him home.
The story is based on Colin Meloy’s beloved fantasy novel, adapted for the screen by Butler. And like most LAIKA films, the voice cast features an impressive roster, including Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg, Jemaine Clement, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, Tom Waits, and Richard E. Grant.
Knight took a lot of heat for directing the live-action Masters of the Universe, which has sadly turned into one of the summer’s biggest box-office bombs. But Wildwood looks like a reminder that stop-motion fantasy is still very much his home turf, and maybe just what he needs to get back on his feet.
Wildwood opens in theaters October 23rd.
🎥 “Club Kid” Trailer: I Love LA’s Jordan Firstman Becomes an Unexpected Dad in A24’s Queer Party-Kid Dramedy with Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva and Reggie Absolom— In Theaters November 6th
Jordan Firstman, who you might have seen in comedy series like FX’s English Teacher and HBO’s I Love LA, makes his biggest leap yet with Club Kid, his feature directorial debut. The film has been generating plenty of buzz since premiering at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section. And Firstman didn’t just direct it; he wrote and stars in it too.
Firstman plays Peter, a washed-up New York party promoter whose life still revolves around late nights, drugs, and chasing the next big party. But everything takes a sharp left turn when a 10-year-old boy suddenly shows up claiming to be the son he never knew he had. Now forced to deal with the responsibilities of being both an adult and a parent, Peter has to reevaluate his life while making room for someone who suddenly depends on him.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean giving up everything that made his old life fun. Peter tries to figure out a way to balance the party life he knows with the responsibilities of suddenly being a dad to a kid who, at times, seems more grown-up than he is.
Also starring Reggie Absolom as Peter’s son, alongside Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and Colleen Camp, this queer-friendly party-kid dramedy is about what happens when growing up finally hits you like a bucket of cold water to the face. Suddenly, all the things that once felt exciting and carefree start looking a little different when someone else is counting on you to be the adult in the room.
Club Kid was acquired by A24 and will open in theaters on November 6th.
🎥 “Without Blood” Trailer: Salma Hayek Pinault Confronts a Painful Past in Angelina Jolie’s Intimate Adaptation of Alessandro Baricco’s Wartime Novel with Demián Bichir — In Theaters September 18th
Salma Hayek Pinault and Angelina Jolie!
These two powerhouse women have come together. But if you’re expecting something glamorous or larger-than-life, think again. Instead, they’ve teamed up for something far more intimate, somber, and emotionally bruising.
Jolie is back in the director’s chair for her fifth feature, Without Blood, adapting Alessandro Baricco’s novel into an emotionally charged drama starring Hayek Pinault as Nina, a woman driven by revenge after losing her family during a devastating war years ago.
Also starring Demián Bichir and Juan Minujín, the film unfolds across decades, as the trauma of war and the loss of Nina’s family fuel her lifelong search for answers and resolution.
“Revenge is the drug that allows us to fight,” Nina says in the film’s trailer. She’s sitting across from a man (Bichir) from her traumatic past, someone she believes holds the answers to what happened to her family all those years ago.
Told through what appears to be flashbacks and a present-day confrontation, Nina slowly pieces together the events that shattered her family and the role this man may have played in them. It’s revenge she wants, but something tells us the truth may not give her the satisfaction she’s been searching for.
Jolie also wrote the adapted screenplay, based on the acclaimed 2002 short novel Senza sangue (aka Without Blood) by Italian author Alessandro Baricco (Novecento). The book tells a fictional story about a wartime massacre in an undisclosed Latin country during a brutal conflict. Many years later, an older Nina sits face-to-face with a man connected to the tragedy, forcing them both to confront the past.
Judging from the footage, this certainly feels like a role we haven’t seen Salma Hayek Pinault tackle in quite some time; perhaps not since her Oscar-nominated performance in Frida.
Without Blood is coming to theaters September 18th.
Congratulations to everyone!