French-Candian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve has become a household name after his 2021 film, Dune, starring Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson and others. Based on Frank Herbert’s novel of the same name, the film will be followed by a sequel in 2023.
Villeneuve has credited filmmakers like Francois Truffaut, Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, and Steven Spielberg food quenching his thirst as a self-proclaimed cinephile. Inspired by Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey– a film that provided him with his first “cinematic shock”- Villeneuve ventured into the genre of sci-fi that has always appealed to him.
Having made his filmmaking debut in 1998 with August 32nd on Earth, it was not until 2013 that he made his Hollywood English-language debut. While he is celebrated for films like Maelstrom, Incendies, Enemy, Blade Runner 2049 and more, Villeneuve’s stunning directorial debut in Hollywood will always be one of his best creations to date.
Starring Kake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman, Viola Davis, Paul Dano and others, the film was based on Aaron Guzikowski’s script partly based on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart. While many actors and directors entered and exited the project, including directors like Antoine Fuqua and Bryan Singer, it was finally Villeneuve who managed to grab it.
The film Prisoners focuses on the mysterious abduction of two young girls in Pennsylvania and the chilling search for the alleged abductor. Jackman plays a distressed father whose daughter and her friend are missing. He is assisted by Gyllenhall as a detective in their frantic search to find the young girls.
With a spectacular cast and an intensely gripping story, this terrific film sees an incredible blend of suspense and chaos within the atmospheric horror and grim tension.
Watch Prisoners on Netflix now.
