Is there room for another kid assassin movie?
Joe Wright (Atonement, The Soloist) hopes so. He's got his own entry to the Leon/Kick-Ass genre called Hanna, starring Saoirse Ronan (Lovely Bones), former Hulk and Star Trek baddie Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett (Benjamin Button).
The story revolves around Saoirse's Hanna, a young assassin who is prepared to leave her father, Eric Bana, and venture into the real world, a place she compares to the fairytale stories she's been reading all her life. Vague, but there's potential for something off-kilter from your run-of-the-mill action flick.
We saw the first footage from Hanna here at New York Comic-Con - here's the lowdown:
The clip starts with Cate Blanchett on the phone, trying to talk her way out of...something. The story's a mystery here, but obviously her slimy CIA character is in danger. That idea is even more evident when a shot is fired through the front door and straight into Blanchett's body guard's head.
A small eye peeks through the bullet hole of the door - Blanchett knows she's in danger. The scene is visceral, but the look is very akin to Wright's other films: clean and crisp. It's not shaky cam style like Bourne, but meticulous dolly moves, methodical action. Blanchett eventually finds her own handgun and she trades shots with the assassin outside the door. Eventually, Eric Bana storms in, but by then, Blanchett is gone.
Second clip - gunfire!
Hanna's been living in the forest with her dad Eric Bana for fifteen years, but now she's been captured by Marissa (Cate Blanchett). In the clip, she's being interrogated by a guard, a tension-filled scene filled with security camera angles and heavy dialogue. There's little comedy in Hanna - replaced by deliberate choices, like a stage play...with guns.
After a few lab techs realize there's something amiss with her blood sameple, Hanna demands to speak to Marissa face-to-face. Cate Blanchett is chewing up her scenery in this movie - her Marissa is dripping with evil, a deranged look in her eye while she's trying to break the young Hanna. Marissa sends a body double to speak to Hanna, whose demise comes quickly when Hanna realizes the truth. This is when the footage goes from unsettling to mentally unstable. Hanna cracks the double's neck, takes down a few guards then fires a few shots into the remaining thugs.
It's deadly - but will it work as a whole? Maybe when they add the Chemical Brothers score!
Either way, we'll find out soon when Hanna hits theaters in April 8th.
