It’s Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street) like we’ve never seen him before in the teaser trailer for The Revenant, Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s follow-up film to last year’s Oscar-winner Birdman, marking a dark shift in tone for the director.
Based on the novel by Michael Punke and adapted for the screen by Iñárritu and Mark L. Smith (Vacancy), the story follows 1820s frontiersman Hugh Glass, who goes on a vengeful rampage as he tracks down the men who left him for dead after a brutal bear mauling. Hugh reveals in the first lines of the teaser, “I ain’t afraid to die anymore. I done it already.” This sets the menacing tone that the footage takes on from there.
The gray-scale film also stars Tom Hardy (Locke), Domhnall Gleeson (Unbroken), Lukas Haas (Inception), and Will Poulter (The Maze Runner).
Although on the surface this film looks and feels nothing like Iñárritu’s last, the teaser features parts of his already familiar directorial style involving single-shot scenes with sweeping camerawork. DiCaprio also ups the ante on the gritty intensity he has channeled in the past in films like The Beach, Shutter Island, and The Man in the Iron Mask. Also familiar will be the appearances by actors Hardy and Gleeson, who are both becoming regulars for award-bait films such as this one.
The Revenant will be released just in time for awards consideration on December 25, notably facing up against Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
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