Since the surprisingly solid 2011 reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes, director Rupert Wyatt has been relatively quiet. He's only turned in a directorial effort on a pair of TV premieres--both 2014's TURN: Washington's Spies and The Exorcist--and the forgettable crime drama The Gambler in that same year. However, his next original feature film has us pretty excited now that an official synopsis has been released.
As part of a press release announcing that Lionsgate will be representing international rights to Participant Media's upcoming feature film slate, new synopses for both Wyatt's Captive State and José Padilha's Entebbe emerged. Back in August, we reported that Wyatt would be both writing and directing the sci-fi film, but now we have word on a bit of casting as well as the plot of the film. Captive State will star John Goodman and Ashton Sanders, and will be financed through Participant’s partnership in Amblin Partners.
Here's a look at Captive State's official synopsis:
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.
That's a decidedly different take on alien invasions. If Arrival's box office performance and critical reception are any indication, moviegoers are thirsty for new visions of extraterrestrial encounters, ones that don't end with an all-out battle to avert world destruction or domination. What's interesting in Captive State is that Wyatt is using an alien invasion and occupation as a stand-in for traumatic events like 9/11 and the resulting wars in the Middle East to explore how reactionary measures like increased surveillance and curtailing of civil liberties can lead to an authoritarian regime, one which results in dissent among its people. It's ambitious, but Wyatt certainly seems capable of delivering.
As a bonus, here's the official synopsis for Entebbe:
Entebbe, starring Rosamund Pike, Daniel Bruhl and Eddie Marsan, is the true story of one of the most daring hostage rescues in history, told from the varying perspectives of the hostage takers, victims and rescuers. A political-action thriller directed by José Padilha and produced by Working Title, Entebbe brings the longstanding conflict between Israel and Palestine into stark relief.
