Of all the movies set to show their wares this fall, perhaps the one that has been kept the most in the dark is Spike Jonze‘s “Her.” The set photos that have circulated certainly don’t betray anything of what his approach will be, and there have been no official stills, posters, teasers or websites to give up the game. That being said, Jonze did provide a peek to those who were lucky enough to be at the L.A. Film Festival in June, showing two clips from the oddball romance that stars Joaquin Phoenix, Chris Pratt, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde and (the voice of) Scarlett Johansson. Ostensibly, the movie is about a man who falls in love with a computer operating system, but as always, it’s much more than that.
“It’s a movie set in the slight future of L.A. and Joaquin Phoenix’s character buys the world’s first artificially intelligent operating system… it basically turns into a human, this entity, this consciousness, on his computer,” Jonze said about the film this summer, adding that the relationship between the man and machine evolves “into something more romantic.” Perhaps there’s shades here of Jonze’s short film “I’m Here“?
Anyhow, watch the trailer below to find out. Oh, and keep your eyes peeled on those credits: it turns out the film will feature music by none other than Arcade Fire. As you might remember the band and Jonze have collaborated before, with the Canadian group providing an acoustic version of “Wake Up” for the first “Where The Wild Things Are” trailer. Additionally, Jonze directed the 30-minute short “Scenes From The Suburbs” for the band. Oh, and that last song in the trailer clearly sung by Karen O of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs? It’s not a YYYs track and a Karen O song called, “The Moon Song” which is an original song written specifically for the film (you’ll remember she wrote the “Where The Wild Things Are” score too).
Bonus round: After the trailer, check out a teaser (via The Drum) for yet another Jonze project, a mysterious music based gig he’s collaborating with YouTube on that requires some assistance from folks just like you.
“Her” arrives on November 20th in limited release.