Emma Stone is alive in the new trailer for Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest, “Poor Things.” Though the first teaser dropped a little over a month ago, audiences are getting another glimpse into the kooky mind of the director behind “The Favourite” and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” and things are about to get bright, colorful and really weird.
Stone plays Bella Baxter, a woman who has seemingly died and been reanimated by a facially deformed scientist, played by Willem Dafoe. The problem is Bella’s mind and body “aren’t synchronized,” leaving her to be a bit off in how she acts. Regardless, the trailer shows Bella going on grand adventures in a bizarre steampunk-esque landscape. Mark Ruffalo plays Duncan Wedderburn, a slick and debauched lawyer who appears to be in love with Bella. We also get to see Ramy Youssef and Jerrod Carmichael, though their roles remain unclear.
The trailer certainly looks bright, with fantastic production design by Shona Heath and James Price, both newcomers to Lanthimos’ world. The plot remains ill-defined though the trailer yields additional bits of information, more specifically we see Stone’s Bella falling from a high tower, implying that she was a once-living woman but what specific elements went into this reanimation are unknown.
“Poor Things” is a return for both Lanthimos and Stone. It’s the first feature in five years for Lanthimos, after “The Favourite,” while this returns Stone to the big screen after a two-year hiatus; her last feature was 2021’s “Cruella.” Lanthimos is also reuniting with “The Favourite” writer Tony McNamara, who wrote the screenplay for “Poor Things” based on Alasdair Gray’s novel. McNamara is also the writer and showrunner on the Hulu series “The Great.” “The Favourite” cinematographer Robbie Ryan is also working on this.
You can watch the trailer above.
Searchlight Pictures will release the film on Sept. 8
