New images from Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals bring the intensity

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Darkness, staring, running and brooding. These are all things that describe the new images from NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, the new thriller from director Tom Ford. That may sound over-dramatic, but I’m just describing the pictures. I'm not the one making them all serious and such.

And it’s very serious stuff indeed. EW got ahold of the images from the new movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams which depicts those said serious scenes—as well as a fancy one of Ford doing his thing.

Ford also commented on the cast, shouting his praises for Adams and Gyllenhaal:

I have obviously always admired Amy as an actress. But after working with her, she is breathtaking. I cast her because, after watching Big Eyes, I found how much she could say with just the smallest emotions. And of course this character is reading a book for most of the film. So Amy’s face had to telegraph everything that’s going on. Her ability to do that, in that respect, makes her maybe the strongest actress working today.

I’ve been so impressed with Jake’s career choices, especially lately, constantly pushing himself in more unpredictable directions. And as a result, you’ve seen his career going like this [Ford makes an upward gesture with his hand]. And you can see why.

The film is about a woman named Susan (Adams) who receives a manuscript for a book by her ex-husband (Gyllenhaal) about a family being terrorized by a band of misfits (led by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) while on a highway. We watch the story-within-a-story unfold as we cut back and forth between Susan reading the story and the family on the road. Ford wrote the script himself based on the 1993 book, TONY AND SUSAN.

I think that what Edward has done is written this book and sent it to his ex-wife and through that, he’s saying, ‘This is what you did to me.’ But it took him 20 years to express himself to her. And what really spoke to me was the whole part about the choices we make in our life. And how long we sometimes wait to make them.

This movie sounds utterly fascinating, and with a cast like this I can’t imagine it being anything less. I can’t say I’ve seen Tom Ford’s last film (2009’s critically-acclaimed A SINGLE MAN, which got Colin Firth his first Oscar nomination), but I heard great things, and from images and trailers, it looked visually stunning. Here’s to hoping Ford can make this movie as good as it sounds.

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS comes out in the heart of Oscar season on November 18, and will star the impeccable cast of Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher and Armie Hammer.