‘Pandorum’ Trailer Teases A Dark and Gritty Sci-Fi Thriller
Posted by Rob Hunter (rob@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 4, 2009
There weren’t a lot of films being previewed at this year’s WonderCon, but buried among the big names like Star Trek and Watchmen was a little sci-fi movie you may not have heard of before… which is a shame as it may just end up being the most interesting one of the bunch. Pandorum is a new film from German director Christian Alvert starring Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster. The trailer premiered last weekend at WonderCon and succeeds at looking pretty good while simultaneously creeping you out. Check it out below.
Quaid is a consistently strong actor in anything he does, but the one to watch here is Foster. His gleeful and dangerous intensity is always a joy onscreen… whether he’s killing folks in 3:10 To Yuma, caressing an underage teenager in Hostage, or acting absolutely bonkers in Alpha Dog. Truth be told though, one of my favorite performances of his is as Dave in The Punisher… he’s funny, he laughs, and I’d love his crazy ass in a romantic comedy. The trailer does an excellent job of teasing the bare minimum of a plot, but for the curious
among you I’ve included the official synopsis here.
Two astronauts awaken in a hyper-sleep chamber aboard a seemingly abandoned spacecraft. It’s pitch black, they are disoriented, and the only sound is a low rumble and creak from the belly of the spacecraft. They can’t remember anything – who are they, what is their mission? The only way out of the chamber is a dark and narrow airshaft. Corporal Bower (Foster), the younger of the two, crawls inside, while the other, Lt. Payton (Quaid), stays behind for guidance on a radio transmitter. As Bower ventures deeper and deeper into the ship, he begins to uncover a terrifying reality. Slowly the spacecraft’s shocking and deadly secrets come unraveled, and the astronauts realize that the survival of mankind hinges on their actions.”
Quaid and Foster are joined by world champion kickboxer Cung Le, German hottie Antje Traue, and evil vampire Cam Gigandet. Foster, Le, and Traue were all on hand for the WonderCon panel and managed to entertain the audience for twenty minutes without revealing a single thing about the plot. Instead they made veiled references to an on-set sex tape, spoke about their characters in unintelligible, broken English, and promised the film contained lots of ass-kicking action. They had me at sex tape. The trailer definitely showcases the spaceship’s claustrophobic environment and the mystery at the heart of Pandorum, although I have to ask… if you awoke with no memory, how would know the world you knew was gone?
Pandorum is scheduled for release this September, and is one of two English-language films director Alvart has in the can. The other, Case 39, is a horror film starring Renee Zellweger and Ian McShane.
What do you think of the trailer? Don’t you think Foster should do more comedies?
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