Laurence here. Have you checked the children? Landing somewhat quietly in a week of splashy comic book trailers was something that looks, frankly, altogether more interesting than both. J.A. Bayona, director of The Orphanage and The Impossible, seems to have found the narrative intersection between both for his new film, A Monster Calls. We only have a teaser trailer so far so we won't give it the full YNMS treatment just yet, but it's an enticing, Burtonesque first glimpse.
Some more information on the film after the jump...
Based on the book of the same name by Patrick Ness, there's a bit of a backstory to this one. The original idea for the illustrated novel came from Siobhan Dowd, an English writer who died of cancer in 2007, three years after being diagnosed. Dowd worked with Ness' editor, who asked Ness to complete Dowd's story, which already had characters, a beginning and an outline. The book was illustrated by Jim Kay and his work looks phenomenal, which makes me wonder if the film's CGI look is going to be anywhere near as singular and haunting.
The story follows Conor (Lewis McDougall), a young boy struggling to cope with his mother's (Felicity Jones) terminal cancer and taunting from his classmates. He escaped by retreating into a fantasy world, and at night is visited by a monster (Liam Neeson), embodied in an ancient tree, who tells him stories. It also stars Sigourney Weaver as Conor's grandmother, Toby Kebbell as his father, and Geraldine Chaplin in an unspecified role.
It sounds and looks a lot like Where the Wild Things Are meets The BFG with a dash of Pan's Labyrinth. Bayona is undoubtedly a stylish director, and the teaser trailer definitely reflects that, combining the macabre horror visuals of his Spanish-language breakthrough and the large-scale destruction of his English-language breakthrough. Bayona has been quiet since he scored Naomi Watts her most recent Oscar nomination, but he gets a lot of points from us for directing the first two episodes of Penny Dreadful and helping to establish the series' rich look. A Monster Calls is due out on October 14 and a full trailer will hopefully be forthcoming.