The next film from Suicide Squad director David Ayer isn’t another big-budget DC Films production, though that is on the way when he works on the Harley Quinn-centric spin-off Gotham City Sirens. First, the director of the Oscar-winning superhero flick is teaming up with another polarizing superhero filmmaker, writer Max Landis, for a feature film that will debut on the small screen instead of the silver one. Bright hits Netflix this December, and it looks like quite the departure for all involved.
Ayer directs a cast full of alums of his films, like Will Smith, Joel Edgerton, Ike Barinholtz, Jay Hernandez, plus other big-name actors like Noomi Rapace, Lucy Fry, and Margaret Cho. The story centers on Smith and Edgerton’s characters, a human and an orc (yup, you read that right) that are partners in the LAPD. When they go out on a patrol, they “encounter a darkness” that changes the world.
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In case you couldn’t tell, this exists in a world where orcs, elves, and fairies live alongside humans in an otherwise fairly “normal” modern world. The official description reads:
“Set in an alternate present-day where humans, orcs, elves and fairies have been coexisting since the beginning of time, 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 young female elf and a thought-to-be-forgotten relic, which in the wrong hands could destroy everything.
“The Netflix original film stars Will Smith, Joel Edgerton, Noomi Rapace, Lucy Fry, Edgar Ramirez, Ike Barinholtz, Enrique Murciano, Jay Hernandez, Andrea Navedo, Veronica Ngo, Alex Meraz, Margaret Cho, Brad William Henke, Dawn Olivieri, and Kenneth Choi. The film is directed by David Ayer and written by Max Landis.David Ayer, Eric Newman, and Bryan Unkeless serve as producers.”
Ayer’s last genre work was of course Suicide Squad, which won the Academy Award last night for best Makeup and Hairstyling. The film was critically panned (though ComicBook.com gave it a largely favorable review), but was well-received at the box office, spawning as many as three reported movies, two spin-offs and a proper sequel, in various stages of development at Warner Bros. The movie’s disparity between critics and fans is notable on the ComicBook.com Composite rankings; it has a 58.36/100 composite based on factors like Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, and fan rankings, but a 4.19/5 from over 2500 fan votes.
Landis, meanwhile, won over fans with his take on integrating superpowers into an otherwise normal world (similar to the fantasy/normal mashup he’s written here) in Chronicle. His outspoken nature on social media, however, has made him a controversial figure in the geek world.
Bright will hit Netflix December 2017.
