We’re still a few days away from this year’s Oscars, but already we’re starting to see glimpses of the films that could be in play next year — The Guardian this morning dropped the first trailer for Derek Cianfrance‘s eagerly awaited period drama "The Light Between Oceans," which doesn’t open for another six months.
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The "Blue Valentine" and "Place Beyond The Pines" director returns for this adaptation of M.L. Stedman‘s best-selling novel, about a lighthouse keeper in Australia, haunted by the First World War, and his wife who find a baby adrift at sea. They adopt the child, only to later find that her mother might still be alive. It’s Cianfrance’s first big prestige picture, and he has some potent collaborators on hand: "Gravity" and "Harry Potter" producer David Heyman, "True Detective" DoP Adam Arkapaw, the great composer Alexandre Desplat, and a hot trio of stars in Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Rachel Weisz.
There’d been some slight question marks raised by the release date that DreamWorks and Disney have given the movie, the usually sleepy Labor Day holiday weekend. But this looks excellent to us, very much an old-school melodrama but with a punch that the helmer often brings to his projects. We’ll find out if the movie pays off when it opens September 2nd (perhaps a Cannes premiere first?), but for now, you can watch the trailer below.