The citizens of Chicago embrace their alien overlords in the teaser trailer for Rupert Wyatt's Captive State. This isn't the first sci-fi offering from the English filmmaker, who made his name ten years ago on the prison breakout thriller The Escapist. In fact, here in the States, Wyatt is best known for successfully reviving the Planet of the Apes movie franchise with his 2011 prequel/reboot, Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
An original project that Wyatt cowrote with his wife Erica Beeney (The Battle of Shaker Heights) in addition to directing, Captive State picks up ten years after extraterrestrials first took hold of our world. Since then, however, some humans have begun cooperating with the aliens, while others remain in open rebellion. According to its synopsis, the film "explores the lives on both sides of the conflict", even as humanity at large adjusts to living under its otherworldly rulers.
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The Captive State cast is led by Moonlight actor Ashton Sanders, who also appeared opposite Denzel Washington in The Equalizer 2 earlier this summer. Sander is joined here by John Goodman (who previously appeared in Wyatt's crime drama-thriller The Gambler) and The Conjuring's Vera Farmiga, as well as Jonathan Majors (Hostiles), Madeline Brewer (The Handmaid's Tale) and Colson Baker aka. Machine Gun Kelly (Bright). Watch the film's teaser trailer in the space below.
Judging by the synopsis and trailer, Captive State functions as a political allegory by way of small-scale alien invasion thriller. Wyatt's genre films typically have more substance than their B-movie premises might suggest and his latest appears to be no exception, in that regard. The Captive State trailer teaser didn't even touch on the movie's sci-fi elements, which goes to show just how much the film is trying to feel like a grounded dramatic thriller (its alien occupants aside).
Focus Features originally had Captive State set to hit theaters last month, before it was pushed back to March 2019. As it stands, the film will now serve as counter-programming to Tim Burton and Disney's live-action Dumbo when it opens in the U.S. next year. If word of mouth ends up being on the movie's side, then Captive State may yet become something of a cult success. The film will probably have a harder time breaking into the mainstream, but it doesn't really need to, thanks to its relatively low $25 million production budget.
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Source: Focus Features
