How to Talk to Girls at Parties Gets 3 Teasers

The first teasers are here for the upcoming Neil Gaiman short story adaptation How to Talk to Girls at Parties, starring Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman. Gaiman's literature is no stranger to the small screen, having previously given rise to the 1996 Neverwhere miniseries (based on Gaiman's novel of the same name) and most recently, Starz' buzzed-about American Gods TV series. Such past, critically-acclaimed movies as the live-action fantasy adventure Stardust and the darkly fantastical stop-motion animated Coraline were based on Gaiman's books too, so How to Talk to Girls at Parties is already in good company.

Gaiman's How to Talk to Girls short story (published in 2006) was adapted for the big screen by screenwriter Philippa Goslett (Little Ashes) and Hedwig and the Angry Inch co-creator John Cameron Mitchell, with Mitchell also serving as the movie adaptation's director. Ahead of the movie's premiere at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival this weekend, three How to Talk to Girls at Parties teasers have been released online, teasing the 1970s-flavored, coming of age madness that await in Mitchell's own take on the (wonderfully) weird world of Gaiman.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties talks place in the London suburbs of Croydon in the late '70s, as young Enn (Alex Sharp) heads to a party being thrown by local punk music starlet Queen Boadicea (Kidman). There, Enn crosses paths with a wonderful and mysterious young woman named Zan (Fanning), unaware that Zan is - quite literally - out of this world. It's best to not expect to glean much more beyond that in the way of plot details from the movie's teasers; videos that have been posted to Fanning, Gaiman and Mitchell's respective Instagram accounts, as you can see below.

Go to @johncameronmitchell and @neilhimself to see the other teasers!!!!! THIS MOVIE IS ALIEN PUNK FUN!!!! #howtotalktogirlsatparties #tinypinkflower #cannes2017 @alexanderiansharp1 !!!!! A post shared by Elle Fanning (@ellefanning) on May 18, 2017 at 6:00am PDT

What's Punk? How to Talk to Girls at Parties is screening at Cannes on Sunday. More teaser films from @ellefanning and @johncameronmitchell... A post shared by Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) on May 18, 2017 at 6:04am PDT

Holy punking fuck! Take a leak at your first peek of HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES A post shared by John Cameron Mitchell (@johncameronmitchell) on May 18, 2017 at 7:02am PDT

Exploring themes of physical, emotional and spiritual transformation through the context of sex, drugs and/or counter-cultural rock n'roll is very much Mitchell's modus operandi (see also his controversial 2006 film Shortbus), so the marriage of the Hedwig co-creator and Gaiman's original How to Talk to Girls at Parties source material reads as being a perfect match of creative sensibilities, all things considered. These teasers affirm as much, teasing a mind-bending take on the concept of sexual awakening and discovery that's as surreal and strange as the Bryan Fuller take on American Gods.

In addition to Fanning and Kidman (who also costar together in Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled in June), the How to Talk to Girls at Parties cast includes Matt Lucas (Doctor Who), Ruth Wilson (The Affair), as well as Sharp in one of his first big screen starring roles (along with this year's Sundance Film Festival release, To the Bone). How to Talk to Girls at Parties doesn't have an official U.S. release date just yet, but that could change very soon, depending on the Cannes reception for the film. As always, we will keep you posted.