Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders,” starring Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy, races into theaters on Dec. 1, following a splashy debut last week at Telluride. And you can watch a brand-new trailer right now (above), to get your engine properly revved.
Based on a 1968 photo book of the same name by Danny Lyon, “The Bikeriders” is told from the point of view of Kathy (Comer), a member of a ‘60s motorcycle gang who marries a handsome new member named Benny (Butler). As the nature of the motorcycle gang changes, so too does Benny’s relationship with the group’s volatile leader Johnny (Hardy). Bursts of violence, great pompadours and tons of cool leather jackets. What more could you want?
This is, incredibly, Nichols’ first movie since his 2016 back-to-back triumphs – sci-fi chase movie “Midnight Special” and his Oscar-nominated historical drama “Loving.” For a long time Nichols was developing a new take on “Alien Nation,” the 1988 sci-fi buddy cop movie that was directed Graham Baker and starred James Caan and Mandy Patinkin, but that project went away after Disney acquired the 21st Century Fox assets. He was also meant to write and direct “A Quiet Place: Day One,” a spin-off of the main franchise but dropped out over creative differences with the studio (he was replaced by “Pig” director Michael Sarnoski).
“The Bikeriders,” like all of Nichols’ previous work, features a performance from Michael Shannon, with additional roles filled by Mike Faist (who seems to be playing a Lyon stand-in), Boyd Holbrook, Damon Herriman, Beau Knapp, Karl Glusman and Norman Reedus, a bike-riding enthusiast in real life. The movie was warmly received out of Telluride, with the movie currently sporting a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, with words like “striking,” “exhilarating” and “oddly poignant” used to describe Nichols’ new movie.
“The Bikeriders” opens exclusively in theaters Dec. 1.
