Norman Reedus Hangs Out Underground In Still From Robert Kirkman’s Air
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While Robert Kirkman wasn’t directly responsible for actor Norman Reedus turning from a Boondock Saints cult fave into a worldwide Walking Dead phenom, he did write the comic book source material. (Okay, so Daryl Dixon was never in the comic, but still.) Kirkman also isn’t personally responsible for the Reedus-starring psychological thriller Air, but he’s largely the reason why Reedus got the part and why the film got made in the first place. So you’d think Reedus would look a little more pleased to be standing around in the second official Air image seen above. But then again, he’s probably worried about his life and the fate of the world and stuff, so his sour demeanor can be forgiven.
Reedus plays Bauer, who teams up with Djimon Hounsou’s (Guardians of the Galaxy) Cartwright inside of an underground bunker while the Earth above them has been almost completely evacuated due to the air becoming toxic (for reasons that may or may not be shared during the film). This bunker is one of many created to house humanity’s more worthy specimens, who are in deep sleep tanks, meant to be woken up when the world is safe and can be repopulated. Cartwright and Bauer are awakened for their twice-a-year duties, and that’s when the secrets come out and everything starts to unravel. Do underground bunker stories ever NOT go completely wrong?
Seemingly the entire story takes place inside of this repurposed missile silo, and claustrophobia is as much of an issue as anything else. The setting is a mix of high and low-tech, the sum of a well-intentioned attempt to save mankind with the best supplies on-hand. Below is the first still of the film, released last week. If you see a fire extinguisher in Act I…
The photos come courtesy of EW, where Reedus and Kirkman shared a few details about the film. Here’s a spoilerish summary of the film from Reedus:
It’s a story of two people who are pretty much the last people on the planet…and one of them thinks of their job as the scientist and the other thinks more of their job as a janitor. And the position is kind of in between both of those. But one of them discovers that the other has a secret, he’s holding onto the secret and that secret is that he’s trying to keep a certain person alive. And through the character I play, his past is such a dark one, and the guilt of what he’s done weighs so heavy on him that he sort of substitutes his real family for this other person in his mind, and he sort of looks at him as a brother in this way that’s a little too close for comfort. And what happens is he ends up forcing the action to take place against the other person’s will. So it becomes this thriller, this mindf— of a movie of convincing this other guy to do something he doesn’t want to do.
That certainly sounds more mentally complicated than a lot of other small-budget post-apocalyptic tales. I much prefer it when the story is limited to just a few characters, rather than focusing on widespread madness. Plus, no zombies anywhere!
Directed by Red Dead Redemption writer Christian Cantamessa, who co-wrote with Chris Pasetto, Air hits theaters at some point in 2015. Is it just me, or are theaters getting smaller and more cramped these days? Is it getting harder to breathe in here?
