So, here’s a quick guide on how to use a single trailer in order to get us to quickly buy a ticket for your movie. One, get Drew Goddard, the writer behind the first Cloverfield and The Martian and the director of The Cabin in the Woods, to write and direct a film for you. Second, fill it with the most incredible cast that you’ve ever seen, with people like Jeff Bridges, Jon Hamm, Dakota Johnson, Cynthia Erivo, and Chris Hemsworth rounding out a truly wonderful ensemble of criminals. Third, set it at a crazy interesting time in American history — the mid-’60s — and at a bizarre locale — a motel on the line between California and Nevada — to bring out the color in the chaos that ensues. This is exactly what 20th Century Fox has done with Bad Times at the El Royale and we need to see this right the fuck now, please.
Here’s the trailer:
Now that’s what we call a great trailer! Anyways, we can’t wait for this film — it’s been far too long since Goddard’s graced our screens, given that every project he’s been attached to has fallen through thanks to strife of which he had absolutely no part in (just look at his aborted Sinister Six movie for Sony, which fell apart thanks to the failure of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 at the box office and the studio detonating their plans for a shared universe after giving the character back to Marvel) — and it looks like he’s brought his A-game to the table.
Plus, it’s always great to see filmmakers shooting on actual honest-to-god film these days, and the movie definitely looks like it’s benefitted from that approach. If you’re going to spend such a long time luxuriating in Chris Hemsworth’s abs, why not make sure that they’re captured with the loving warmth of 35mm film?
Here’s a synopsis:
Seven strangers, each with a secret to bury, meet at a run-down hotel in Lake Tahoe in 1960s California. Over the course of a fateful night, they all get one last shot at redemption before everything goes wrong.
Bad Times at the El Royale hits theaters on October 5.
Featured image by Kimberley French for 20th Century Fox.