The Last Duel trailer has been released online, giving moviegoers a look at Ridley Scott’s new Medieval period piece about a 14th-century duel to the death between a knight (Matt Damon) and his squire (Adam Driver), after the squire is accused of having raped the knight’s wife (Jodie Comer). The film also stars Ben Affleck as a French nobleman, who presides over the accusation and resulting conflict. Damon and Affleck also re-united to do the screenplay for The Last Duel, working alongside Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said). If nothing else, it’s an interesting mixed bag of talent coming together for this project.
You can watch the trailer for The Last Duel below:
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Synopsis: In 14th-century France, knight Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) and his squire Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) are ordered to fight to the death after Carrouges accuses Le Gris of raping his wife (Jodie Comer).
Ridley Scott hasn’t really been knocking it out of the park at the box office in the last decade or so (see: Robin Hood, The Counselor, Exodus: Gods and Kings), but his films tend to continue to earn a dedicated cult following, even if it takes a few years. The best example of this is Scott’s return to the Alien franchise; his Alien (sort of) prequel Prometheus and its sequel Alien: Covenant got lukewarm receptions and/or box office returns, but have still managed to gain acclaim as time goes on. So if nothing else, Ridley Scott has proven he makes cinema that will stand the test of time, even if it’s not immediately popular. That may need to be the case for a odd-duck kind of film like The Last Duel, whose casting will be a hard distraction for a lot of viewers to overlook.
It does bode well that Ridley Scott’s most popular film of the last few years happens to be the one he made alongside Matt Damon, The Martian (2015). That film brought in $630 million worldwide and gave Scott a much needed directorial “win” after years of failing to to crack the half a billion mark. Damon and Affleck are definite box office draws; Adam Driver and Jodie Comer are two of the most acclaimed new talents of the last few years (see: Star Wars and Killing Eve, respectively); however, the last time Ridley Scott did a Medieval period piece it was his 2010 film Robin Hood, which cast big names like Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Max von Sydow, William Hurt, Mark Strong, and Oscar Isaac – and still was considered miss, despite earning over $300 million and being one of the high-grossing Medieval films of all time. Still, Ridley Scott’s first film was The Duellists, another historical drama – so maybe this new film will have some luck hanging over it.
The Last Duel will be in theaters on October 15th.