The Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox brought with it a number of exciting opportunities, largely in regard to its impressive roster of characters, but one of the drawbacks was that the largely family-friendly company found itself owning films within the erotic thriller subgenre, causing release complications. Now that the upcoming film Deep Water, starring Ana de Armas and Ben Affleck, is confirmed to be getting a release on Hulu, a teaser trailer has been unveiled to build excitement for the project. Check out the teaser trailer for Deep Water below before it lands on Hulu on March 18th.
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Based on the celebrated novel by famed mystery writer Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley),ย Deep Waterย takes us inside the marriage of picture-perfect Vic (Affleck) and Melinda (de Armas) Van Allen to discover the dangerous mind games they play and what happens to the people that get caught up in them.
Deep Water was directed by Adrian Lyne from a screenplay by Zach Helm and Sam Levinson. The movie also stars Tracy Letts, Lil Rel Howery, Dash Mihok, Finn Wittrock, Kristen Connolly, Jacob Elordi, Rachel Blanchard, Michael Braun, Jade Fernandez, Grace Jenkins, Brendan C. Miller, Devyn Tyler, and Jeff Pope.
Deep Water is only one of many films that has struggled to find a release in recent years, as it was originally slated to hit theaters back in 2020, with the coronavirus pandemic completely upending the entire theatrical release slate of the last few years. The mature subject matter also didn’t entirely fit within the Disney brand, with 20th Century Studios and Hulu allowing The Walt Disney Company to circumvent branding challenges.
This new film marks Lyne’s first return to directing since 2002’s Unfaithful. Despite the lapse in erotic thrillers earning major releases, Lyne previously earned acclaim in the space thanks to films like Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal, and Lolita.
Last year saw Amazon Prime Video release the erotic thriller The Voyeurs, with Michael Mohan previously addressing why studios have shied away from such projects.
“I did commit. I did, because I think that there’s this last genre of erotic thrillers that has somehow mysteriously disappeared since 2006,” Mohan detailed to ComicBook.com of developing the shocking storyline. “I think the last proper one was maybeย Unfaithful, which was just as visceral as ours, and nominated for Oscars, and made a ton of money. It was a total mystery to me why they ceased to exist. No good art comes from a place of fear, and I think me and Sydney and the whole cast were fearless.”
As far as why this genre of erotic thrillers have dwindled, Mohan theorized, “I think some of these movies haven’t stood the test time. I think, in 2021, if an audience is going to see a scene of intimacy, the way that you can enjoy it is with the knowledge that the performers involved had agency and bullet-proof consent. I think that, in the past 10 years, I think we’ve now been able to solve that with the advent of intimacy coordinators. I think, on this film, what we wanted to do is we didn’t want to just adhere to intimacy standards, we wanted to set a new bar. I don’t know if that explains why [erotic thrillers] don’t exist anymore. I don’t actually know the answer to that question, but I do know that we are actively trying to bring it back for a modern audience.”
Deep Water debuts on Hulu on March 18th.
Are you looking forward to the new film? Let us know in the comments below!
