With an introduction from the distinctly non-tree-form Liam Neeson, the new trailer for Juan Antonio Bayona's dark fantasy A Monster Calls has been unleashed online. Check out all the impressive imagery and strong emotion below.
With Bayona having shown he knows how to get good performances from younger actors in The Orphanage and The Impossible, A Monster Calls is built around Lewis MacDougall, who had a small role in Pan but here steps up to play Connor, a lad dealing with the slings and arrows of his childhood. His mother Elizabeth (Felicity Jones) is slowly dying, his father (Toby Kebbell) left the family a while ago, he's being bullied at school and doesn't like his grandmother (Sigourney Weaver) who is now a fixture in his life given how Elizabeth's health has recently taken even more of a downturn.
Haunted by a reoccurring nightmare, he escapes into a world of fantasy and magic when a giant yew tree in the cemetery next to his home transforms into a giant wooden man-like creature (played by Neeson via performance capture) and offers him a chance to break free from his troubles a little. But is this destructive new force in his life a help or a danger?
“Everyone facing big things in their life feels helpless like a kid,” Bayona tells USA Today. “It’s very interesting when you tell the story through the eyes of a young boy who’s turning into a man. Everyday life doesn’t work as a fairy tale, and every kid should learn that as they grow up.”
Neeson, who has been known for his action thrillers of late but had a solid grounding in dramatic work before that, was the first choice to play the the Monster, according to the director: “You start to think about how we can present the years of wisdom that an English tree would have, and Liam has a beautiful voice and soul that he was able to transmit.”
A Monster Calls will stomp into UK cinemas on January 6 next year.