A first trailer for Spiderhead, the new big-budget psychological thriller from Netflix, has arrived. Click below to watch it:
Spiderhead, which is based on the short story Escape From Spiderhead by George Sanders, stars Thor actor Chris Hemsworth, Top Gun: Maverick’s Miles Teller, Birds Of Prey’s Jurnee Smollett and Alien: Covenant’s Tess Haubrich.
The Netflix movie is set in the near future and in a world where convicted criminals are offered the chance to volunteer as medical subjects to shorten their sentence.
Hemsworth plays Steve Abnesti, the overseer of the experiment, which includes giving one inmate a new drug capable of generating feelings of love. The prisoner, Teller’s Jeff, comes to feel a connection with another prisoner named Rachel, but knowing about the trial, he begins questioning the reality of his emotions. As things progress, Jeff sets out to try and outmanoeuvre the experiments of the prison and save her…
Joseph Kosinski, who is about to wow us all with his long-awaited action-spectacular Top Gun sequel, has directed the movie, with the script coming from Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.
The film, which was filmed in Hemsworth’s native Australia, will debut on Netflix on June 17. Expect to see some form of clip, too at Netflix’s upcoming Geeked Week extravaganza.
Analysis: A new direction for Chris Hemsworth?
Hemsworth isn’t just the star of Spiderhead, he’s also among the producers, and, you’d imagine, was a big reason why this movie got the green light.
The role of Abnesti is a move away from the Thor: Love and Thunder’s normal wheelhouse, which when he hasn’t been playing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has largely consisted of action man roles like Extraction and 12 Strong. Here he’s playing a scientific visionary who is determined to find a cure for all manner of ailments using human guinea pigs. In Sanders’ story, he’s a charming and brilliant, two qualities we know Hemsworth has in spades.
This isn’t actually the first time he’s played such a role. He was a bright spark in the dull drama Bad Times At The El Royale as Billy Lee, the charismatic leader of a dangerous cult. If he transfer some of that performance here, the movie will be in good hands.
From the trailer, it looks like we’ll be spending a lot of time inside a four walls, so we’ll hope the chemistry between Hemsworth, Teller, Smollett and Haubrich is electric and can sustain the film.
