20th Century FoxBirdman's done it again! Well, not technically Birdman himself, but rather the filmmaker who was behind the Oscar-winning movie.
The trailer for The Revenant, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu's latest endeavor, just dropped and it can only be described as intense. In fact it's almost impossible to discern that the two flicks came from the same director. Replace Birdman's New York City backdrop with the harsh, unending wilderness and lose all quirkiness and humor and you've got The Revenant.
Of course, it's a lot better than it sounds. In fact, we wouldn't be surprised if there was major awards season buzz around the flick (it's out in limited release on Christmas Day)—the flick is chock full of Academy darlings, after all. You still have a ways to go until you can see the full-length feature, but check out the trailer below and then learn a little bit about the film.
1. The plotline is really, really serious. In short, it follows a fur trapper (DiCaprio) who is mauled by a bear and then robbed and left for dead by his supposed partners, he wills himself to live and then goes on a mission across the winter-y wilderness to seek revenge on the men who betrayed him. So in other words, it's not exactly your typical Christmas Day rom-com.
2. The movie is actually based on a novel of the same name by Michael Punke, which is based on a true story. That's right, there really was a man who was mauled by a bear, abandoned by his fellow trappers and then traveled thousands of miles through the rural American west. What did you do today?
3. DiCaprio's main foe (and chief abandoner) is played by Tom Hardy, alongside relative unknown Will Poulter (who has been seen in We're The Millers and Maze Runner).
4. The shoot for this movie was no joke. The team, which also includes now-legendary Birdman cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, filmed over almost nine months in the remote Canadian wilderness, and would often have to spend almost half the day just traveling to and from locations. Iñárritu also used only natural light, which meant that they could only shoot for very small portions of the day (it was winter in northern Canada, after all).
5. The shoot was was long and grueling, in fact, that it forced Hardy to drop out of Suicide Squad. He was originally supposed to play the role of Rick Flagg, but he was replaced by Joel Kinnaman after The Revenant suffered all kinds of production delays and setbacks. If that's not dedication to the craft, we don't know what is.