Here are our first looks at footage from The Coen Brothers scripted Gambit and Neil Jordan’s Byzantium

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Today we have some first looks at footage from a pair of very different movies. First up is GAMBIT from director Michael Hoffman and screenwriters Joel and Ethan Coen. Now, the Coen Brothers typically do not write movies they don’t plan on directing as well, so I was somewhat disappointed to find out they only scripted this one. But, the first snip of the trailer gives me some hope that this could be a fun comedy.

GAMBIT stars Colin Firth as Harry Dean, an employee of a multi-billionaire (Alan Rickman) who decides to orchestrate a heist with the help of a cowgirl (Cameron Diaz). While this is a remake of the Michael Caine/Shirley McClaine comedy, this looks to only loosely share the same story. I would be willing to give this movie a shot, but the fact that it hits UK theaters on November 21st and there is no current US release scheduled gives me the feeling this one may go direct to DVD.

Here is to hoping we get to see Colin Firth get punched in the face here in North America sometime soon.

The other clip comes from Neil Jordan’s vampire movie BYZANTIUM starring Saorsie Ronan.

Plot: Eleanor and Clara, two mysterious and penniless young women, flee the scene of a violent crime and arrive in a run-down coastal resort. They try to find money and refuge along the tawdry seafront and in the dilapidated hotels. Clara, ever-practical, sells her body. She soon meets shy and lonely Noel, who provides a roof over their heads in his seedy guesthouse, Byzantium. Clara, always looking towards the future, turns it into a ‘pop-up’ brothel. Meanwhile Eleanor, the eternal schoolgirl, meets Frank, a kindred spirit who unwittingly prompts her to tell the truth about her life. She tells him that Clara is her mother; yet Clara is only a few years older. She says that she was born in 1804; yet she is just sixteen. She confesses that she must drink human blood to stay alive – and so must her mother. In the small, quiet town, people start to die. And the past that the girls have been running from for so long, finally catches up with them – with astonishing consequences.

Neil Jordan has had quite a varied career ranging from INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, THE CRYING GAME, MICHAEL COLLINS, and my personal favorite, THE BUTCHER BOY. This looks to be a very different take on the vampire story and I hope it lives up to this very tense clip. Check out our very own Chris Bumbray’s take on BYZANTIUM from this year’s Toronto Film Festival. No current release date is set for the film.