South Park hasn’t had a great batting average so far in the Trump era, but they were super on-point with their Netflix jokes a few weeks ago. From the Netflix employee answering the phone with “Netflix, you’re greenlit” to the jokes about Will Smith starring in a fantasy movie about a LA cop struggling to get over his racist ways after he’s paired with an orc — wait, hold on.
It seems that wasn’t a joke, and it wasn’t even in the episode at all! It’s the plot of Bright a new Netflix original movie directed by David Ayer (Fury, End of Watch, and, goddamn it, Suicide Squad), which stars Smith and Joel Edgerton and cost something like $90 million dollars to make.
And honestly? Color us pretty intrigued, especially from this trailer.
We’ll say this a thousand times over the course of the coming months, but we’ll stan for everything David Ayer did prior to Suicide Squad, and that includes the uproariously funny Schwarzenegger vehicle Sabotage. He’s got a fun flair for action that overwhelms so many of the flaws in his work and also he’s got a real skill at dealing with actors, especially when he’s not working as a gun for hire or as the director of a Max Landis script.
Anyways, this looks interesting enough — the fantasy/cop-drama mash-up has a great deal of potential, even if the younger Landis will inevitably overdo it and make the whole thing sound like nails on a chalkboard. The aesthetic is pure Ayer, though that’s up to you if it’s a good thing or not.
Here’s a synopsis from Netflix:
Set in an alternate present-day, this action-thriller directed by David Ayer (‘Suicide Squad’, ‘End of Watch’, writer of ‘Training Day’) follows two cops from very different backgrounds (Ward, a human played by Will Smith, and Jakoby, an orc played by Joel Edgerton) who embark on a routine patrol night that will ultimately alter the future as their world knows it. Battling both their own personal differences as well as an onslaught of enemies, they must work together to protect a thought-to-be-forgotten relic, which in the wrong hands could destroy everything.
Bright hits Netflix on December 22, just in time for an awkward holiday viewing with your family.
Still provided by Netflix.