Once set for a Thanksgiving release, Jeff Nichols‘ Mud follow-up, the sci-fi adventure Midnight Special, was moved to March, presumably to avoid the certain genre competition in The Hunger Games and Star Wars. Strangely though, Warner Bros. dated it for March 18th, 2016, a mere week before their little Batman v Superman film will tear up the box-office.
Since no one has seen it yet — the cast has spilled that it’s likely to stop by Berlin and SXSW — we won’t jump to conclusions, but considering it’s the studio debut by Nichols, we’re quite looking forward to. Ahead of likely trailer by year’s end, the first image has now landed courtesy of EW. Ahead of that, though, we have an exclusive synopsis if you missed it:
Midnight Special is a supernatural sci-fi thriller from acclaimed writer/director Jeff Nichols (Mud, Take Shelter). It stars Oscar nominee Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire, Man of Steel) as Roy, a father desperate to protect his uniquely gifted, eight-year-old son Alton, played by newcomer Jaeden Lieberher.
Joined by Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby, Animal Kingdom) and Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man, Melancholia), this group must race to get Alton to a secret location all while being hunted by an extreme religious sect led by Sam Shepard (Mud, August: Osage County) and a government task force headed up by Adam Driver (Girls). It is a full-on chase, the outcome of which could bring about a world-changing event.
“Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Starman, they were my inspirations — very propulsive journeys that work when you can’t predict what’s going to happen next,” Nichols tells the magazine. “This is my sci-fi chase film.” Check out the image below (with hopefully a high-resolution one coming soon), along with a poster and some recent conversations with Michael Shannon, as well as a new red band trailer for his next movie, The Night Before.
Midnight Special arrives on March 18th, 2016.