Guillermo del Toro's follow-up to his Best Picture-winning romance The Shape of Water has revealed its first look. Vanity Fair offered a preview of the movie with a series of images and a conversation with the director. The images showcase the production's impressive cast of talent and offer a tease at the illustrious production design typical of a del Toro film.
Nightmare Alley stars Bradley Cooper as Stanton Carlisle, a carnival worker turned nightclub performer who uses a series tricks to sell himself as a mind reader. The cast also includes Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Willem Dafoe, Toni Colette, David Strathairn, and del Toro's longtime collaborator Ron Perlman.
Take a look at the film's first images through the tweet below.
Welcome to #NightmareAlley, from Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. V.F.'s @HWD has your first look: https://t.co/nzqbgCl9mn
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) September 14, 2021
While the title Nightmare Alley may seem to imply some supernatural occcurance, del Toro stated that the noir is grounded in reality. The director acknowledged that the film's title may create a false impression for prospective audiences.
"It has happened to me in the past with Crimson Peak, where people went in expecting a horror movie," del Toro said. "This has no supernatural element. It’s based completely in a reality world. There is nothing fantastic. It’s a very different movie from my usual, but yes, the title and my name would create that [impression]."
Nightmare Alley is an adaptation of a 1946 novel by William Lindsay, which had been previously adapted for a 1947 film starring Tyrone Power. Del Toro emphasized that the upcoming film is not a remake and instead draws heavily from the novel.
"From the beginning, our interest was to go for the novel, but it’s almost impossible to adapt because it has a very kaleidoscopic, very peculiar voice," del Toro said. "You would need a six-hour miniseries and shifting points of view, and this and that… I wanted to do the universe of the novel, which is a little gritty, but also strangely magical. It has a very strange, mystical allure— and mythical. I was very attracted to that possibility.”
Nightmare Alley will hit theaters on December 17, a prime window for prospective awards season players.
In our review of The Shape of Water, IGN gave the film an 8.9, calling it a "visually and emotionally engrossing fable… that synthesizes so many of this unique filmmaker's peculiar tastes and diverse artistic influences."
J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.