Post-Potter life has been fairly kind to Daniel Radcliffe.
From battling The Woman in Black to infiltrating a neo-Nazi sect in Imperium, not to mention the wholly irreverent Swiss Army Man, the former Boy Who Lived has consistently strayed outside his comfort zone in order to approach weird, wonderful, and often compelling roles. And Beast of Burden is yet another interesting feather in Radcliffe’s hat.
The film sees the actor playing Sean Haggerty, a “drug-running pilot who teams with the DEA to bring down the cartel on the promise of medical treatment for his ailing wife.” While it’s supposed to be his “last job,” things don’t go according to plan and he finds himself in an extremely tricky situation. It might be a bit of a generic premise, yes, but judging from this first trailer, which can be seen above, Radcliffe looks to have picked another exciting project – albeit one with a rather low budget, as evidenced by the footage here.
Still, we do trust the actor’s judgement, as he seems to be making all the right moves at the moment. After the staggering success of the Harry Potter franchise, it’d have been awfully easy for him to rest on his laurels, coasting by on the fame and fortune that those films earned him. In fact, we’ve seen a lot of young stars do exactly that, but it seems like Radcliffe’s determined to turn himself into a legitimate leading man, and he seems to be well on his way to doing so – if he hasn’t already.
Will Beast of Burden mark another impressive turn from the former boy wizard? We’re certainly hopeful, and we’ll find out for sure when the film hits select theaters, VOD and Digital HD on February 23rd. It’ll co-star Pablo Schreiber (American Gods) and Grace Gummer, and is directed by Jesper Ganslandt.