Following a solid showing behind the camera with ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ in 2011, filmmaker Rupert Wyatt hasn’t done much. He took his talents to the small screen to direct episodes of ‘TURN: Washington’s Spies’ and ‘The Exorcist’. Then somewhere in between, he took on the forgettable Mark Wahlberg crime drama ‘The Gambler’ and vacated the director’s chair of the troubled X-Men spinoff ‘Gambit’. Although a few months ago, we learned that Wyatt had been cooking up an original sci-fi thriller titled ‘Captive State‘ starring John Goodman and Ashton Sanders. No details were revealed at the time other than that it would be “very grounded and relatable to our world”. But now we have the first synopsis of the upcoming film from Lionsgate and Participant Media.
Earlier this week, a press release from the studios revealed a little more information about ‘Captive State’. While we don’t know what roles Goodman or Sanders will be playing just yet, we do have a better idea of the setting and the themes the story is set to explore:
‘Captive State’ is a sci-fi thriller set in a Chicago neighborhood nearly a decade after it has been occupied by an extraterrestrial force. ‘Captive State’ uses a grounded sci-fi setting to shine light on the modern surveillance state and the threats to civil liberties and the role of dissent within an authoritarian society.
In this day and age where sequels, prequels, and adaptations are the norm, Wyatt’s latest project sounds like a pretty refreshing take on alien movies. And now that the world has experienced ‘Arrival’, they’re certainly clamoring for more stories like that one that don’t necessarily need to rely on all-out war between humans and aliens with explosions and blockbuster-level action by the end of the film.
What do you think about the latest details for ‘Captive State’? Are you excited to see new work from Rupert Wyatt? And do you think that he’ll be able to handle the heavy themes of this original story in new and unique ways? Let us know in the comments.
Despite being a “professional writer”, Ben likes run-on sentences far too much. For more of his attempts at being funny and the occasional insightful thought, follow him on Twitter and Instagram.
