Trailer Tracker: The Dark Knight Rises, Hugo and more

Could it have been anything else? Our featured trailer this week is of course the now officially released teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan’s mammothly anticipated follow-up to his billion dollar smash. The fun doesn’t stop there, however, as we also have Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of the beloved novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, simply called Hugo, and the latest from Aardman Animation, creators of the “Wallace and Gromit” films, The Pirates! Band of Misfits. Finally we’ll touch on two other big releases with the star-studded Contagion and the remake of the John Carpenter classic The Thing which my fellow writers Julian and Steven have chatted about here and here respectively. There is only one thing you need to know right now: you’re reading Trailer Tracker.

New clip this week:
The Dark Knight Rises
Hugo
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Contagion
The Thing

The Dark Knight Rises

Good things really do come in threes. First the enticing “crumbling city” teaser poster for this third and final “Batman” installment hit the web to fanboy delight and then not but a few days later a blurry, bootlegged version of the trailer debuted. Now in all its non-pixelated glory, Warner Bros. unleashed the official clip, which debuted before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Beginning similarly to all the fan-made trailers dotting YouTube, we get a Ra’s al Ghul voiceover and brief scenes from the first two films until finally a decrepit Commissioner Gordon is seen lying in a hospital bed, begging with Bruce Wayne to resume the mantle of The Caped Crusader. If that wasn’t enough to satisfy (though also to spur) fan hunger, the trailer concludes with a hulking Bane converging on a somewhat frightened-looking Batman in a dark prison. Slap me now.

So, it would seem the final big reveal yet to come is an official look at Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman, though I would be upset if that was the extent of what’s to come from the unfurling viral marketing campaign. Rumors indicate the feature trailer for the July 2012 release will be attached to the Christmas debut of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and though I stress that it is only a rumor, the timeline seems to work out as principle photography clips along. The promo material is really pushing this as “the conclusion” and “end of the journey” even though more Batman films have already been proposed after Nolan departs and the prospect of a fully rounded trilogy, not undertaken with different actors and directors, makes me want next summer to be here all the more. 

Ah, the true nature of Hollywood encapsulated in a title change. The novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by New Jersey native Brian Selznick is now being adapted by beloved filmmaker Martin Scorsese as Hugo Cabret, which was then again shortened to merely Hugo (because those other big words will just be confusing to audiences). Thankfully the strength is in the details, mainly Scorsese’s involvement, a screenplay by the Oscar-winning John Logan and a cast nothing short of spectacular which includes Chloe Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jude Law, Christopher Lee, Emily Mortimer and Ray Winstone, even though the trailer left me wanting. Scorsese is known for his artful depictions of violence, if not merely well-drafted mature subject matter, not family fare. The novel does have its darkly mature moments but being presented in 3-D and featuring a clip where people tumble hilariously into wedding cakes seems like an uneasy fit of an auteur project.

Having brought us the wonderfully droll and Monty Python-esque works of “Wallace and Gromit” and other fare such as Flushed Away, Aardman Animations is a little pocket of uniqueness amongst the major animation studios. The Pirates! Band of Misfits follows a lovable rouge known only as Pirate Captain (voiced by Hugh Grant) and his band of swashbucklers as they try and win the Pirate of the Year Award while battling against the stern Queen Victoria. Joining grant is a wonderful cast including Jeremy Piven, Imelda Staunton, David Tenant and Hobbit-to-be Martin Freeman, all voicing the stop-motion styled characters we have come to love from this studio. The trailer is simply wonderful, and if you are a fan of British humor (which I am) this could quite possibly rise to one of your more expected projects to come out in 2012.

Contagion

I don’t know how many times I can use a phrase akin to “outstanding cast” in one feature, but by damn I’m going to do it again. Matt Damon, Lawrence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet and Bryan Cranston join Steven Soderbergh’s latest in this disease-centric thriller. This debut clip is extremely well-cut, promising more than your usual doomsday plot elements, though it does seem to indicate the demise of a number of main characters (mostly irrelevant to the greater arc I’m suspecting). There has been early Oscar buzz for this script – odd considering the genre – and Soderbergh seems to fare well with audiences in his more mainstream works such as the “Oceans” trilogy. Due in theatres Sept. 9, this will make even your slovenly roommate wash his hands for a few extra seconds.

The Thing

Now thrice remade, first as the 1982 film by John Carpenter from 1951’s The Thing from Another World and next, this coming October’s The Thing stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) as one of a group of scientists at a remote outpost who accidently free an alien life-form capable of taking on human form. There is really no excuse for this movie to exist as Carpenter’s adaptation is still widely regarded as a horror masterpiece that still holds up today. The creature design of that offering is a bit dated, so some modern special effects can’t hurt and it does seem to be a faithful remake/prequel, or whatever it’s being called right now. Even if The Thing turns out to be a little dose of scary fun, it still speaks to the pointlessness of the “re” machine.