French Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve might be one of the fastest-rising stars in North American cinema, wowing critics and audiences by mixing his distinct cinematic visions with mainstream sensibilities without compromise. After being nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars for “Incendies,” he became best buds with Jake Gyllenhaal, and was central to the actor’s renaissance, teaming with him for back-to-back pictures: the unnerving “Enemy” and the detective procedural “Prisoners.” Next came last year’s “Sicario” with Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro — so well received it has spawned a sequel and potential trilogy — and of course he’s been tapped by Ridley Scott himself to direct the upcoming “Blade Runner” sequel with Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, which is set to shoot this summer.
But moving at an extremely rapid clip, Villeneuve has already completed another movie: the sci-fi “Story Of Your Life.” However, it appears Villeneuve’s picture is switching gears. For a while now, there were rumors the director was testing out different titles, and it appears he’s settled on a new one — “Arrival.”
A listing for an early preview screening of the movie (via Gizmodo) also notes the title change. Moreover, eOne is handling the film in the U.K. and on the U.K Film Distributor’s Association site, Launching Films, it lists Villeneuve’s film as “Arrival” as well, and has a release date of November 11th, right in the heart of Oscar season (apparently a subscription-based newsletter went out with this same information).
Now, this isn’t 100% confirmed, but connecting all the dots, there does seem to be strong supporting evidence. Expected to show up at one of the fall film festivals, our guess is “Arrival” will appear either at the Toronto International Film Festival (where “Enemy” debuted) or the Telluride Film Festival (where “Prisoners” made its first bow). And that could easily mean a domestic release shortly thereafter (“Sicario” had its North American premiere at TIFF, and Lionsgate released the picture two weeks later).
Starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, “Arrival” centers on language: Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist (Adams) is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat. Renner plays a physicist brought in to study the aliens’ understanding of mathematics, and the film also co-stars Forest Whitaker and Michael Stuhlbarg. Here’s a longer synopsis:
When mysterious spacecraft touch down across the globe, an elite team is put together to investigate — including language expert Louise Banks (Amy Adams). Mankind teeters on the verge of global war as everyone scrambles for answers — and to find them, Banks will take a chance that could threaten her life, and quite possibly humanity.
Here’s a first look of the film that was quietly released on Twitter by a crew member working on the film (since taken down) that was captured on this forum here (and in the tweet below). Obviously “Arrival” has no official release date, but the alleged U.K. date might be a strong clue as to when Paramount Pictures will bring it to theaters stateside.
Update: Paramount has confirmed the title “Arrival” and a November 11 wide release in the U.S.
First look at Denis Villeneuve's Amy Adams-led 'The Story of Your Life' pic.twitter.com/LZ9NQWhkcM
— Jason (@jasonosia) November 7, 2015
