‘Serenity’ Trailer: Anne Hathaway Wants Matthew McConaughey to Kill Jason Clarke

The sexy thriller Serenity was originally supposed to hit theaters in October – but that didn’t happen, and we all sort of forgot about it. Now it’s back! The flick now opens in January, and there’s a new trailer full of twists, turns, and Matthew McConaughey with his hair slicked back. In this sun-dappled noir, McConaughey is reunited with Interstellar co-star Anne Hathaway, who here plays a bleached-blonde looking to bump off her husband, Jason Clarke. Watch the Serenity trailer below.

Serenity Trailer

Wow, this remake of Joss Whedon’s Serenity sure looks different! I’m kidding, of course. This has nothing to do with the Serenity, the film adaptation of Whedon’s Firefly. Instead, this looks like a throwback to noir films like Double Indemnity and Body Heat. The film hails from Steven Knight, director of the excellent Locke, and writer of Eastern Promises, Peaky Blinders, The Girl in the Spider’s Web: A New Dragon Tattoo Story, a draft of the upcoming World War Z 2, and more.

Knight usually leans more towards writing than directing, but he felt the urge to direct Serenity. “Certain ideas come along and you decide you want to have complete control over it,” he told Variety, “so by directing you don’t have to compromise so much. I don’t love the whole process of directing, as it’s so hard and brutal and physically exhausting, and you’re dealing with all the deadlines and money pressures. But it is strangely addictive.”

McConaughey plays the incredibly named Baker Dill (!!), a “fishing boat captain leading tours off a tranquil, tropical enclave called Plymouth Island. His quiet life is shattered, however, when his ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway) tracks him down with a desperate plea for help. She begs Dill to save her – and their young son – from her new, violent husband (Jason Clarke) by taking him out to sea on a fishing excursion, only to throw him to the sharks and leave him for dead. Karen’s appearance thrusts Dill back into a life he’d tried to forget, and as he struggles between right and wrong, his world is plunged into a new reality that may not be all that it seems.”

This sounds promising, and I love the cast. McConaughey, Hathaway and Clarke are all worth watching, and the film also features Diane Lane, Djimon Hounsou, Jeremy Strong. That’s not a cast to ignore, folks. That said, the fact that this was originally set to open this year, and then was unceremoniously bumped to January – which is usually a dumping ground – has me a bit worried. Maybe it’ll turn out okay, though. At the very least, it’ll be fun to hear people say the name “Baker Dill” on the big screen at least once.

Serenity opens January 25, 2019.