‘The Dog Stars’ First Look: Ridley Scott’s Post-Apocalyptic Flick Starring Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin & Margaret Qualley Arrives In August

Finally, we have some first-look stills from Ridley Scott’s sci-fi flick “The Dog Stars,” which stars recent Oscar-nominee Jacob Elordi (“Frankenstein”), Josh Brolin (“Weapons,” “Dune: Part III”), Margaret Qualley (“The Substance”), Guy Pearce (“The Brutalist”), and Benedict Wong (“The Martian,” “Prometheus”).

This batch of images from the post-apocalyptic flick comes to us from a new Esquire Magazine article profiling the film, an adaptation of the Peter Heller novel and boasting a script from screenwriter Mark L. Smith (“The Revenant,” “Overlord”). We’ll have to be a little more patient when it comes to a teaser trailer, and that likely won’t be too far away.

The outlet also provided this tantalizing synopsis:

A story set in the aftermath of global destruction. In this case, it’s not war but a lethal pandemic that has swept most of humanity off the globe. A few stragglers survive, including Elordi’s Hig, a pilot who has a single-engine Cessna he calls The Beast, a loyal blue heeler mutt named Jasper … and not much else. The dog and the plane are Hig’s version of singing “Old McDonald”—small comforts to keep him going when all seems lost.

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Of course, Scott is no stranger to sci-fi material after giving us “Alien,” “Blade Runner,” “Prometheus,” directing the Andy Weir Mars survival book, “The Martian,” and producing/spearheading Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049” (after opting to direct “Alien: Covenant. Through his production banner Scott Free Productions, he’s also been overseeing recent “Alien” franchise installments like “Alien: Romulus” (a sequel is in the works and seeking a new director) and the streaming TV series “Alien: Earth” (heading into a second season).

However, what attracted the veteran filmmaker to the project was the opportunity to do something different with the end-of-the-world setting: “I think there’ve been rather too many apocalyptic movies,” Scott told Esquire. “And I think I started off with a pretty tough one doing ‘Blade Runner’ years ago. There was no end to the grimness of ‘Blade Runner.’ In this, what I’m so pleased that came off was the strong feeling of hope. ‘It’ll be okay.’ If you do the right thing, it calls to mind the expression: God helps those who help themselves.”

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You can check out those new images from Esquire below, as “The Dog Stars” is officially set to be released in theaters on August 28 (the article doubling down on that date, debunking internet rumblings of the movie being delayed to the fall), thanks to distributor 20th Century Studios.