As Craig Zobel’s adaptation, Z For Zachariah, gears up for its debut this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival, a peek at the first footage from the movie has landed in the above clip. Courtesy of Hitfix (via Live For Films), the brief segment offers a look at the leading trio – Margot Robbie, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Chris Pine – having a laugh in a post-apocalyptic America.
Zobel, who previously helmed the eerie Compliance, adapted the movie from the 1974 novel by Robert C. O’Brien. Set “in the wake of a disaster that wipes out most of civilization,” Robbie plays Ann Burden, a young woman who has spent a year following that disaster alone in a valley untouched by its devastation. After a lone scientist kitted out in a radiation suit stumbles upon her homestead, she is forced to deal with his arrival… until a second man turns up and further complicates matters.
The complex dynamics which spring up between the three will apparently be utilized to make a series of points about human behaviour, and how it doesn’t change even after the end of the world. If the emphasis here is going to push the drama angle, then the three leads tackling the material are fine choices. Robbie’s star is on the rise, after her winning turn in The Wolf Of Wall Street, Pine is nabbing a variety of roles to flex his acting chops, with Stretch being perhaps his stand-out performance, and Ejiofor continues to go from strength to strength as a very nuanced performer.
With the story established, this brief clip aims to illuminate a certain stage in their relationship. By the looks of things, it’s not all gone to pot just yet! The trio dance, drink and party, with a few suggestive gazes thrown in there. It’s got potential to rock the audience’s socks off this weekend, so check it out above and let us know what you make of this debut clip.
Z For Zachariah debuts at Sundance this Saturday at 8.30pm. It has yet to land a US release.
Nuclear war has devastated America, except for the valley where Ann Burden has been living alone for over a year – until Loomis, a scientist in a radiation-proof suit, arrives. She hopes they will be companions but his behaviour towards her becomes increasingly threatening as he attacks her and then cuts off her food supply and tries to bring her under his control. Although there may be no one else alive, Ann steals his suit and leaves the valley in search of humanity.
