Fox Searchlight will be giving the “female Frankenstein” story Poor Things, which stars Emma Stone (Cruella), a theatrical release on September 8th. With that date exactly three months away, a full trailer has arrived online, along with a new poster. You can watch the trailer in the embed above, then take a look at the poster at the bottom of this article.
Yorgos Lanthimos has directed Poor Things from a screenplay by Tony McNamara, based on a novel by Alasdair Gray (pick up a copy HERE). Stone is joined in the cast by Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers), Ramy Youssef (Ramy), Jerrod Carmichael (The Carmichael Show), Margaret Qualley (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Suzy Bemba (Kandisha), and Christopher Abbott (Possessor).
Stone earned an Oscar nomination for her role in Lanthimos’s film The Favourite, and Poor Things brings them back together. In a Vogue interview, Lanthimos revealed that he has been wanting to make Poor Things for several years, going back to the days before his 2015 film The Lobster, and had been talking to Stone about the project since they were working on The Favourite together.
The film is described as being the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
When we first heard about Poor Things, all we knew about the story was that it was called a “female Frankenstein” story because after drowning herself to escape her abusive husband, Bella’s brain is replaced by that of her unborn child. We learned more by looking up the description of Gray’s novel, and that description goes along with the full synopsis the film has now. Reviews from readers have indicated that the novel is incredibly weird, and judging by the marketing materials that certainly appears to be an element that Lanthimos has successfully translated to the screen.
What did you think of the full trailer for Poor Things? Will you be seeing this movie on the big screen in September? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Here’s the new poster: