Heading both to TIFF and to the BFI London Film Festival, Leonard Abrahamson's dark drama Room has just released its latest trailer. Brie Larson, William H. Macy and Joan Allen head the cast, and the film's based on the novel by Emma Donoghue.
Nothing to do with the world-conquering Apple game or the infamous Tommy Wiseau debacle, this Room is based on the 2010 novel by Emma Donoghue, which is itself based loosely on the real life case of Elisabeth Fritzl. Fritzl was imprisoned in a secret basement space by her appalling father Josef for 24 years, bearing him several children which he explained as foundlings. She was discovered in 2008, and her father was jailed for life in 2009.
In Donoghue's Booker-shortlisted version, this becomes the story of Ma, seven years a prisoner with a five-year-old son called Jack, who is also the novel's narrator. Their captor remains offstage, given little attention, since the focus is Jack's world view, having never known anything but the small space in which he lives. But that world is about to be shaken when he and Ma are finally freed.
Donoghue wrote her own screenplay, and this is Abrahamson's first film following last year's excellent Frank. Room plays at the BFI London Film Festival on October 11, and gets its full UK release on January 29.