With “Devil’s Knot” out of the way after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, Atom Egoyan is working at a Steven Soderbergh-like pace and already has another movie in the can, this one starring Ryan Reynolds. But it has undergone some slight modifications.
Originally announced under the title “Queen of the Night,” according to production company The Film Farm, the movie will now be called “The Captive.” Co-starring Scott Speedman, Mireille Enos, Rosario Dawson, Kevin Durand, Alexia Fast and Bruce Greenwood, all we’ve really known about the movie thus far is that it centers on the father of an abducted child who still thinks she’s alive eight years after she’s been taken. A fuller synopsis has been unveiled, and it seems the thematic territory treads into similar areas as “Prisoners,” though clearly with some major differences as well. Check it out below:
MATTHEW is driving his massive logging truck and leaves his precious daughter sleeping as he ducks into roadside washroom. When he returns she is gone.
In the following years, his wife TINA visits the police station where she has formed a relationship with the detective, NICOLE. Each year on CASS’s birthday, NICOLE gives TINA a report on how the search for her missing daughter is going. Lately, the police have identified the girl on the internet, but have had no success in tracking down her physical presence. CASS has aged 8 years since her disappearance. She is being held somewhere, but what is she doing there? The disturbing nature of her “broadcasts” is gradually revealed. Can CASS use these “broadcasts” to her advantage to plan her own escape?
THE CAPTIVE is a drama about how this kidnapping destroys two relationships—that of MATTHEW AND TINA, who blames her husband for all that has happened, as well of that of NICOLE and her co-‐worker JEFFREY. NICOLE AND JEFFREY work intensely with the horrors of internet child abuse crimes from day to day. Surprisingly, they find they have a good relationship despite their horrific work and are attracted to each other. They have a strong connection until the moment when Jeffrey’s obsession with work crosses an ethical line.
Years after the kidnapping, MATTHEW is driving a truckload of nursery trees to a remote destination. On his way, he stops for an overnight stay at a motel. When he wakes the next morning his truck is gone. A single tree is left in its place. In the far distance he sees another stolen tree planted on the side of the road. Approaching it, he sees another and another. The Trees are leading him somewhere. Is this a nightmare, or is he confronting a disturbing dream come true?
The theme of THE CAPTIVE is that great evil will not go unpunished, but the twisting nature of this evil creates an unpredictable and complex story.
No word yet on a release date, but with the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals in the early part of 2014, perhaps we’ll see it pop up there. In related news, Egoyan’s West Memphis three drama “Devil’s Knot” starring Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon has found a home with Image Entertainment. The film wasn’t very well received in Toronto, and our review more or less explains why. Image will release the film in the second-quarter of 2014.
