New Trailers! Whalefall, The Dog Stars, I Want Your Sex, Enola Holmes 3 and The Cat in the Hat
🎥 Austin Abrams gets swallowed by a whale, Jacob Elordi wanders the apocalypse, Olivia Wilde & Cooper Hoffman get kinky, Millie Bobby Brown searches for Sherlock, and Bill Hader voices the Cat.
🎥 “Whalefall” Teaser Trailer: Austin Abrams Gets Swallowed by a Massive Sperm Whale in Brian Duffield’s Much-Buzzed-About Deep-Sea Survival Thriller with Josh Brolin — Opening in Theaters October 16th
We’ve always believed the ocean might be the last frontier cinema still hasn’t fully explored. After all, most of the world is covered in water, with deep pockets of mystery still waiting to be discovered. And don’t even get us started on the TikTok rabbit hole of scrolling through videos about how the ocean is basically a living beast designed to remind us we probably shouldn’t be down there in the first place.
Well, enter what might turn out to be the surprise hit of the year: a film about a young scuba diver who is swallowed by a massive sperm whale and forced to survive the ordeal. It’s like Pinocchio, only with less storybook magic and a whole lot more existential dread.
Watch the teaser trailer for Whalefall, a film that understands monsters do exist; sometimes they just happen to be massive mammals lurking in the deep ocean. And if you’re unlucky enough to get too close, you might just find yourself swallowed whole with seaweed, tiny fish, and every bad decision that led you there.
In the upcoming survival thriller Whalefall, Austin Abrams, of Weapons and the upcoming Resident Evil reboot, stars as Jay Gardiner, a young scuba diver who heads into the Pacific Ocean off the central coast of California following the death of his father, Mitt Gardiner, played by Josh Brolin.
Jay’s dive, however, takes a horrifying turn when he is attacked by a giant squid and then swallowed alive by a massive sperm whale. Trapped inside its belly with roughly one hour of oxygen left, Jay must fight through panic, injury, darkness, and the impossible realization that there may be something worse than death: being trapped inside a gigantic living sea creature with no clear way out.
The film recently became one of the most talked-about projects shown at CinemaCon back in April, as the teaser created quite a stir not only for the eye-popping sequence of Austin Abrams’s Jay getting swallowed by a whale, but also for the incredible sound design of the murky ocean. If there’s a film that screams “watch this on the biggest screen possible,” this might be it.
Also co-starring Elisabeth Shue, Jane Levy, Emily Rudd, and John Ortiz, the upcoming survival thriller hails from writer-director Brian Duffield, whose work tends to take strange genre ideas and ground them in messy human emotion. He wrote and directed the darkly comic teen flick Spontaneous, about the school phenomenon of random teen heads exploding without warning. A modern cult classic, if you ask us. Duffield also wrote and directed the mostly dialogue-free alien abduction thriller No One Will Save You, starring Kaitlyn Dever as a young woman who finds herself alone, defending her home from an alien invasion..
Based on Daniel Kraus’s 2023 novel of the same name, with Kraus and Duffield co-writing the adapted screenplay, Whalefall also has Brian Grazer and Ron Howard among its producing team.
What makes the teaser especially intriguing is that Whalefall appears to understand the fine line it has to walk. Push too far one way, and the premise becomes too ridiculous to believe. Push too far the other, and it loses the pulpy thrill of watching someone try to survive inside one of the most impossible places imaginable. Fingers crossed this hits that balance just right.
Whalefall opens in theaters October 16th. Prepare to be afraid of the water again.
🎥 “The Dog Stars” Full Trailer: Jacob Elordi Searches for Hope in Ridley Scott’s Stark Post-Apocalyptic Survival Drama with Josh Brolin & Margaret Qualley — Opening In Theaters August 28th
To be quite honest, Jacob Elordi was never someone we initially saw as more than the new flavor of the month: a Netflix heartthrob riding the streaming success of The Kissing Booth film series. Who knew he would later become one of the more interesting rising talents working today?
After making his mark on HBO’s groundbreaking, if occasionally exploitative, teen drama Euphoria, Elordi has continued to push past that early image. And with his career-redefining turn as the Monster in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, he has proven there’s far more to him than the pretty-boy label Hollywood first handed him.
Now it seems Elordi is entering that next phase in his career: one where he’s stepping into leading-man territory with something to prove. No longer just the romantic heartthrob, he’s now the brooding lost soul trying to find his footing in a world turned upside down.
In The Dog Stars, a new post-apocalyptic survival drama from legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott, Elordi stars as Hig, a young pilot living in a brutal post-apocalyptic world where survival has become a daily ritual. Together with Bangley, a military survivalist played by Josh Brolin, Hig has carved out an efficient but isolated homestead in the ruins of civilization. But when violence and the threat of a larger unknown become more apparent, Hig is forced out of his semi-comfortable solitude by a mysterious radio transmission that may point to a world beyond devastation and total collapse.
Margaret Qualley, also a rising young talent after standout turns in The Substance, Honey Don’t!, and Poor Things, co-stars here as Cima, a resourceful medic who seems to have feelings for Elordi’s Hig as the two find themselves holding on to a fragile idea of the past that may never return.
Based on Peter Heller’s bestselling novel of the same name, this feels like a bit of a departure for Ridley Scott after delivering back-to-back large-scale spectacles like Napoleon and Gladiator II. Though there appears to be no shortage of action or fight sequences involving feral dystopian outlaws, Scott seems more interested in telling a more intimate story of survival against immeasurable loss.
Joining Elordi, Qualley, and Brolin in this dystopian survival drama is a strong supporting cast led by Allison Janney, Benedict Wong, and Guy Pearce. The adapted screenplay comes from Mark L. Smith, who previously wrote The Revenant, a film that also dealt with themes of isolation, endurance, and the thin line between survival and surrender.
The Dog Stars opens in theaters August 28th. Come for the Elordi star factor, but stay for Ridley Scott trading empire-sized spectacle for something lonelier, rougher, and maybe a little more emotionally wounded.
🎥 “I Want Your Sex” Teaser: Filmmaker Gregg Araki Returns to His Kinky, Boundary-Pushing Roots with Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman in a Cheeky Erotic Comedy Thriller — Coming to Theaters July 31st
Maverick indie filmmaker Gregg Araki, of The Doom Generation, Nowhere, and Mysterious Skin fame, has built a career out of making films that push the envelope, not only within the landscape of queer cinema, but also in the way they challenge our comfort with provocative subject matter. Sex, in particular, has long been part of Araki’s cinematic language, often portrayed with a mischievous wink, a cheeky attitude, and a willingness to poke at the boundaries of what audiences expect to see on screen.
His latest is no exception. In fact, it may just be a return to form for the 66-year-old auteur, who continues to prove that a mature filmmaker doesn’t need to water down the impulses that made his work feel so dangerous in the first place.
So yes, a new Gregg Araki film called I Want Your Sex sounds pretty much like exactly what you might expect from him. It’s a kinky erotic comedy thriller that toys with the boundaries of BDSM. It also turned plenty of heads at Sundance earlier this year, where it was praised for exploring the generational divide in how different age groups view sex and their attitudes toward desire, power, and consent.
In the film, Cooper Hoffman stars as Elliot, a fresh-faced young man who lands what appears to be a dream job working for Erika Tracy, a renowned artist, cultural provocateur, and icon of sexual liberation, played here by Olivia Wilde. Before long, Erika taps Elliot to become her sexual muse, pulling him into a world where fantasy fulfillment starts looking a lot more complicated than advertised. The thing is, Erika’s world is not only seductive, but it also comes with rules Elliot may not fully understand until he’s already too far inside.
Written by Araki and Karley Sciortino, the film appears to bring Araki back to the kind of cheeky, boundary-pushing territory that made his early ’90s films underground favorites. While he never achieved the same mainstream notoriety as someone like John Waters, Araki has nevertheless carved out his own lane as a filmmaker willing to turn taboo and rebellion into something unapologetically his own.
The cast also includes Charli XCX, Daveed Diggs, Mason Gooding, and Chase Sui Wonders, with Margaret Cho and Johnny Knoxville rounding out the ensemble.
I Want Your Sex is slated to open in theaters July 31st.
🎥 “Enola Holmes 3” Trailer: Millie Bobby Brown’s Young Detective Heads to Malta as Sherlock Goes Missing Before Her Wedding in Netflix’s Latest Holmes Installment — Premiering July 1st on Netflix
The Holmes family business has never exactly been low-stress, but Enola Holmes 3 appears ready to make things even more complicated for everyone’s favorite fourth-wall-breaking young detective. This time, Enola is heading far from London and straight into trouble in Malta, where personal plans and professional instincts are about to crash into each other in very inconvenient fashion.
Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown returns for a third time as Enola, who is preparing to marry Lord Tewkesbury, played once again by Louis Partridge. But before wedding bells can ring, Sherlock Holmes goes missing.
That’s right: it will take a Holmes to save a Holmes.
The third film in this Netflix franchise finds Enola pulled into a case that looks bigger, riskier, and more tangled than anything she has faced before. Sherlock’s disappearance sends her through an unfamiliar setting filled with political tension, international danger, and a mystery that forces her to balance family loyalty, romantic uncertainty, and her own future as an investigator.
Henry Cavill returns as Sherlock Holmes, with Helena Bonham Carter back as their mother, Eudoria Holmes. The cast also includes Himesh Patel as Dr. John Watson and Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Moriarty, along with Susan Wokoma and Hattie Morahan.
British director Philip Barantini, best known for Boiling Point and Netflix’s Adolescence, takes over the franchise from Harry Bradbeer. That makes this an interesting handoff, especially for a series known for its playful tone, period mystery, and social bite. Barantini’s background in tense, performance-driven drama could bring a sharper edge to Enola’s latest adventure.
Written by returning series writer Jack Thorne and based on Nancy Springer’s Enola Holmes Mysteries, Enola Holmes 3 is due to premiere July 1st on Netflix.
🎥 “The Cat in the Hat” New Trailer: Bill Hader Voices Dr. Seuss’ Top-Hatted Agent of Nonsense in This New Animated Adventure — Arriving In Theaters November 6th
Some characters are built for bedtime stories. Others feel like they were designed to burst through the front door and wreck the living room.
The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss’ top-hatted agent of nonsense, is getting a new animated feature with comedian Bill Hader voicing the Cat himself. And honestly, Hader feels like a pretty natural fit for a character who operates on pure confidence, elastic logic, and the belief that every problem can be solved by making it much, much weirder.
This time around, the Cat works for the I.I.I.I., otherwise known as the Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration, LLC. His latest assignment is to help Gabby and Sebastian, voiced by Xochitl Gomez and Tiago Martinez, two siblings struggling after moving to a new town. Naturally, his version of helping involves whisking them into a fantastical world of mischief, magic, and comic danger.
But there’s a catch. The Cat’s habit of taking things too far may finally cost him his magical hat, making this less of a simple kid-friendly adventure and more of a last-chance mission for the world’s most irresponsible imagination specialist.
Directed and written by Alessandro Carloni and Erica Rivinoja, the animated fantasy comedy also features Matt Berry, Quinta Brunson, Giancarlo Esposito, America Ferrera, Bowen Yang, Paula Pell, and Tituss Burgess.
The Cat in the Hat is slated to open in theaters and IMAX on November 6th.
