One of the ways Warner Bros. is hoping to plug the gap in its bookbuster schedule left by Harry Potter is this adaptation of Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s young adult novel Beautiful Creatures. The second trailer is now online and you can watch it above or in HD over at Apple’s joint.
Before we go any further, however, we’d caution anyone who hasn’t read the book that a big spoiler is revealed, one we were told should be kept quiet when we visited the New Orleans set.
The story introduces Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), who longs to escape his narrow-minded Southern town. He’s intrigued when Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) arrives at his school, causing local tongues to wag about dark magic and Satanism.
Turns out they’re not entirely wrong as Lena and her family, including her mysterious uncle Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons) are witches and warlocks – or “Casters” as they prefer to be called. And Lena is facing a ticking timebomb with her own powers. Soon she will turn 16, and her powers will be claimed by the light or dark side of magic. Her cousin Ridley (Emmy Rossum) has already turned to the dark side.
Plus, Lena’s mother Sarafine is also out there, trying to convince her good-hearted spawn to join with her, so that her powers can be used to usher in a new age for Casters. One that doesn’t necessarily include ordinary humans…
Promising a healthy genre turn about where Lena is the powerful one and Ethan is the mortal attracted to her, and with a solid cast (including Viola Davis and Emma Thompson among its ranks), this could be the start of a healthy new franchise. But future speculation will have to wait until the movie arrives on February 13 over here.
