Searchlight Pictures has finally released the first teaser poster for the new film Guillermo del Toro, Nightmare Alley which reminded fans that the first film to be directed by del Toro since winning Best Director and Best Picture at the 2017 Oscars for The Shape of Water It will be released on December 17, 2021.
In addition to the poster, the studio has also released some first look images (via Vanity Fair) which gives us a first look at the stellar cast led by Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett.
Based on the 1946 novel by William Lindsay Gresham and the 1947 film starring Tyrone Power, this new version stars Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born) as Stanton Carlisle, Cate Blanchett (The Aviator) as Dr. Lilith Ritter, Toni Collette (Heritary) as Zeena, Rooney Mara (Carol) as Molly along with Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse) as Clem Hoately, Ron Perlman (Hellboy) as Bruno, Mark Povinelli (Water for Elephants), David Strathairn (Billions ) as Pete, Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water) as Ezra and Holt McCallany (Mindhunter) as Anderson.
Nightmare Alley Set in a world of carnivals and con artists, tells the story of a mentalist who teams up with a psychologist to trick the rich. The story centers on an ambitious man named Stanton Carlisle (Cooper) with a talent for manipulating people with words. She then tries to find out about the mind-reading attraction of Mademoiselle Zeena, who performs with her husband. Stanton then has a relationship with a female psychiatrist named Dr. Lilith Krumbein (Blanchett) who is even more dangerous than she is.
For information, the project Nightmare Alley was in the midst of producing and shooting when news of the pandemic began to worry. On March 10, 2020, del Toro and Cooper deliberated and decided together that it was best to stop filming rather than risk someone falling ill. However, the six months it took the crew before restarting production was worth it, as del Toro edited some parts of the film that had already been shot and realized that some rewrites were needed. As del Toro explains, “We were able to go back six months between all of this and be able to analyze and see not only the character but what we needed to rewrite to be able to get back on set. If your pores are open, the film will find you.”
