James Gunn has revealed an extended trailer and poster for his superhero horror movie Brightburn. The Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker has a long history when it comes to the horror genre, having written Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake and directed the original horror-comedy Slither back in the 2000s. More recently, he served as a writer and producer on 2017’s The Belko Experiment, a horror-thriller where office workers are forced to “compete” in a twisted social experiment that requires them to kill others in order to stay alive.
Brightburn, by comparison, is essentially a dark re-imagining of the Superman origin story. While Gunn isn’t a credited writer, he helped develop the movie’s premise and story with his cousin and brother, Mark and Brian. The latter pair went on to write the screenplay, with Gunn serving as a producer and David Yarovesky (the Guardians of the Galaxy: Inferno music video) calling the shots as director. Sony kicked off the marketing in late 2018 and has since released a pair of trailers for the film. Now, the movie has gotten an extended promo, to go along with an official poster.
Gunn unveiled the Brightburn poster on his Twitter account today, shortly before revealing an extended 3-minute trailer for the film. You can watch the new promo below (via Comic Network), followed by the one-sheet.
The extended trailer is largely a combination of clips and footage from the previous Brightburn promos, but there is some fresh material here. Moreover, the extended preview offers a better taste of the film’s horrifying elements and R-rated violence than its predecessors did. Elizabeth Banks (who previously worked with Gunn on Slither) and The Office’s David Denman star here as Mrs. and Mr. Breyer, a small-town American couple who discover an alien pod that’s crash-landed on earth and is carrying a mysterious otherworldly infant. However, as the new trailer illustrates, this familiar story takes a dark turn from there, as the baby grows up to be Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn): a seemingly ordinary boy who discovers he has super-human abilities… and doesn’t intend to use them for good.
Gunn originally planned to pull the curtain back on Brightburn at San Diego Comic-Con last summer, but his plans were cancelled when Disney fired him from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, a day before Sony’s SDCC panel. Gunn has since been “rehired” to direct the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie and is currently preparing to begin shooting The Suicide Squad later this year. In the meantime, however, it appears that Gunn will be doing his part to promote Brightburn and get everyone interested in seeing what a truly dark Superman movie could look like.
MORE: Everything You Need to Know About Brightburn
Source: Comic Network, James Gunn
- Brightburn Release Date: 2019-05-24
