What’s Peter Jackson been up to, you might ask? Watching Mad Max: Fury Road, by the looks of it. The trailer for his new film Mortal Engines looks like it’s taken the ‘post-apocalyptic road movie with vast mechanical monstrosities’ model and run with it hard. The Mortal Engines trailer is here, and it looks… interesting.
Based on the Philip Reeve young adult novel of the same name, Mortal Engines is set in an apocalyptic England, where – for reasons which will become readily apparent – enormous wheels and engines have been installed on the country’s cities and towns, so they can literally drive around. Big cities like London eat smaller towns like Dorset. Does that make sense? Who gives a shit!
The Mortal Engines trailer is below, and it looks like it’s absolutely chockablock with CGI. Jackson optioned Mortal Engines back in 2009, but he only got it off the ground in late 2016. He’s writing and producing, but not directing – that’s gone to his old mate and frequent collaborator Christian Rivers.
Check it out:
As you can see, the influence of George Miller‘s Fury Road – which has yet to be topped as an action movie since its release, and maybe ever – is all over this one. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. It was successful for a reason, and it’s a ambitious target to shoot for. This one seems a lot more reliant on CGI wizardry, and the practical effects were one of the reasons Fury Road worked.
The film stars Robert Sheehan, Hera Hilmar and local hero Hugo Weaving.
But I’m reserving judgement. One thing’s for certain: the concept is cool as hell. We’ve got a while to wait yet – Mortal Engines doesn’t drop until December 18, 2018. Until then, you’ll just have to imagine what it looks like when one city eats another city.
