The riveting Australian crime thriller Animal Kingdom put director David Michod on our radars. If you haven’t checked that fantastic film out yet, do yourself a favor and track it down. We’ll gush more about that in a second. For now, we’re pleased to present an exclusive look at the first trailer for Michod’s follow up, The Rover, which stars Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson and Scoot McNairy. The trailer is above.
Michod appears to be playing in a similar sandbox with The Rover. Tough, grizzled criminals playing test-of-wills mind games, always with the treat of violence. Here’s the synopsis:
In a dangerous near future in the Australian desert, Eric (Pearce) has left everything behind, but when his last possession is stolen by a gang of dangerous criminals, Eric sets off on a hunt to find them. Along the journey he enlists the help of Rey (Pattinson), the naïve and injured member of the gang, who was left behind.
We know that Pearce is capable of holding his own n gritty crime thrillers like this. Just typing that gives me an itch to watch him in Memento, and soon. The biggest question mark is Pattinson, who is still looking for his niche in a post-Twilight universe. Nothing that he has done to date suggests he has the chops to blast his way through an Outback-set gangster picture. But Michod’s Animal Kingdom was SO good, I’m willing to bet he saw something in Pattinson that made him worth the roll fo the dice.
Educate yourself on the works of Michod. Start with Animal Kingdom.
And as an extra treat, here’s the fantastic short film Spider, co-written by Michod and Nash Edgerton – brother of Joel – that uses a lot of the day players who showed up in Kingdom and could find roles in The Rover.
A24 will release The Rover later this year. To keep tabs on the film, follow its official site, it’s Facebook page, and its Twitter feed.
