Much like TRAINING DAY and END OF WATCH, David Ayer's upcoming BRIGHT will find the director dealing with law enforcement and gritty human drama, but with the addition of orcs, elves, and fairies. Set in an alternate present-day, BRIGHT follows two cops from very different backgrounds. Ward, a human (Will Smith), and Jakoby, an orc (Joel Edgerton), as they embark on a routine night patrol that will alter the future of their world as they know it. Noomi Rapace, who plays the villain, recently spoke with IndieWire about BRIGHT, and praised the Netflix film as a "completely new universe."
I read the script and I was like, ‘Oh my days, this is…I don’t…I’ve never seen this, I’ve never dreamt about this.’ I grew up in Iceland with elves, we kind of believe in elves and this is like elves and orcs and lizard people and humans working side by side, living together in LA, in modern LA, downtown LA, career town. You can really feel David’s [other films] ‘Harsh Times,’ ‘Training Day,’ and ‘End of Watch,’ that kind of rawness and real authentic feeling. It’s not magical kind of fantastic sci-fi. It’s very real, it just happens to be orcs and elves and creatures that are not from our world. I think it can be a complete new wave.
Noomi Rapace added that BRIGHT is "very intense" and will feature "a lot of fight scenes." I'm certainly excited to see what David Ayer has cooked up for us in the film, but part of what excited Ayer about working with Netflix was that they literally let him do whatever he wanted in the film. That level of creative freedom was refreshing for Rapace to see, as she was happy that David Ayer was "in a space where he could do what he wanted," adding that "It’s less people involved and I think, for him as a filmmaker, that gave him a certain freedom. His whole energy around him and the atmosphere he created for us actors was a very fun and creative place to be in." I suppose we'll soon see whether all that freedom will pay off, but BRIGHT is already looking like an absolute blast. Bring it on.
We found ourselves learning a little more about Noomi Rapace's character during San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year. Although Rapace's character is the antagonist, she certainly doesn't see it that way; she's merely trying to make the world a better place for her own kind. As a powerful elf, Rapace's character actually created the mysterious wand which everyone in the film wants, and is desperate to get it back from Tikka (Lucy Fry).
The official synopsis for BRIGHT:
Set in an alternate present-day, this action-thriller directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad, End of Watch, writer of Training Day) follows two cops from very different backgrounds. Ward, a human (Will Smith), and Jakoby, an orc (Joel Edgerton), embark on a routine night patrol that will alter the future of their world as they know it. Battling both their own personal differences as well as an onslaught of enemies, they must work together to protect a deadly, thought-to-be-forgotten relic, which in the wrong hands could destroy everything.
BRIGHT will debut on Netflix on December 22, 2017.