Building a narrative around a real-life mystery can be a tough job, though it also allows for plenty of invention and speculation. Such is the case with The Vanishing, which stars Peter Mullan, Gerard Butler and Connor Swindells. See the first trailer for the thriller below.
Nothing to do with either the 1988 or 1993 movies of the same name, this was Once called Keepers. The film finds director Kristoffer Nyholm working from a script by Joe Bone and Celyn Jones. It attempts to fill in the events surrounding the Flannan Isle mystery. Which runs thus... A small relief boat approaches the Isle, a tiny isolated island no bigger than a football pitch, 20 miles off a rugged coast. Its aim is to routinely replace the three lighthouse keepers who are ready for the end of their shift after 6 weeks alone manning the light. It nears the dock and none of the men greet them. The winch is broken. A call. Nothing. Experienced keepers Thomas (Mullan), James (Butler) and Donald (Swindells) have vanished. The lamps are clean and refilled; the table is laid for dinner. There is an upturned chair. Two sets of yellow oilskins are missing... The men were never found.
The film posits that the men stumbled upon a chest full of gold next to dead body with the treasure belonging to someone else – and that someone came to collect it. You can imagine the ensuing web of greed, paranoia and murder than ensues. Having waited a while for release, The Vanishing will be in US cinemas (and On Demand) on 4 January, but despite an IMDB listing for March in the UK, there's bo official word on that yet.
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