Given that his sole film in the English-language to date was “Alien: Resurrection,” it’s not surprising that French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet has preferred to stick to homegrown fare in the fifteen years since (bar a brief flirtation with making “Life of Pi,” eventually filmed to great success by Ang Lee). But the director’s back Stateside at last, with “The Young And Prodigious Spivet,” and a trailer’s just arrived, courtesy of The Film Stage.
Based on Reif Larsen‘s “The Selected Works Of T.S. Spivet,” the story follows a young inventor who leaves his eccentric family after being invited to the Smithsonian. And fingers crossed, this looks like a much more successful venture into the English language than his ‘Alien’ movie — there’s a real sense of Americana, but it’s also clearly a Jeunet film, with the promo looking closer to his most celebrated hour, “Amelie,” than anything he’s made since. It’s also Jeunet’s first foray into 3D, and he looks to be making good use of the format.
Newcomer Kyle Catlett leads the cast, with Callum Keith Rennie, Helena Bonham-Carter, Kathy Bates, Judy Davis and, of course, Dominique Pinon also involved. The film doesn’t yet have a release date (or a U.S. distributor), but we’re expecting to see it crop up on the festival circuit in the fall.