Actor (and my fellow Kentucky native) Michael Shannon is starring in a new film due in theaters next spring called Midnight Special. The film has no relation to the Creedence Clearwater Revival song, nor the 1970’s musical variety show of the same name. Instead, the plot appears to center on one mysteriously superpowered eight-year-old boy named Alton, the son of Shannon’s character.
Written and directed by Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter also starring Shannon, Mud starring Matthew McConaughey), Midnight Special has the same southern roots as Nichols’ previous films. Taking place in Texas, the trailer opens on Shannon’s Roy harboring his son Alton — whom he has apparently kidnapped — in a hotel room. The reason for the pair being on the lamb stems from Alton’s supernatural abilities, which includes some sort of telekinetic power connected to the light that shines from his eyes. Both their religious community and an unnamed agency seem to want to use and investigate Alton’s abilities to their own advantage.
The Texas community from which Roy and Alton hail seems to veer into religious cult territory, as evidenced by Adam Driver’s dialogue. Driver plays an investigative scientist who tells Alton he thinks the boy is “a weapon, and the Ranch thinks you’re their savior.” While Nichols has pointed to Mark Twain as an inspiration in the past, the director told Screen Daily that Midnight Special has been heavily influenced by John Carpenter‘s Starman: “I really wanted to make a 1980s John Carpenter film like Starman. I love the way those films look.” Midnight Special releases on March 18, 2016 and stars Shannon, Driver, Kirsten Dunst, Joel Edgerton, and Sam Shepard.
We think this looks pretty damn good, so what say you folks? Will you be seeing this when it hits theaters? Sound off!
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Image: Warner Bros.
