This is not a teaser trailer. This is more like a trailer that has been cut off at the thirty-second mark in order to make us all go ‘ARGH!’ But because I had to go ‘ARGH’, then so do you. What I’m referring to is the first not-really teaser trailer for the upcoming Kill Your Darlings, starring Daniel Radcliffe as Beat poet Allan Ginsberg.
Yeah, you read that right. Daniel Radcliffe plays a young Allan Ginsberg, before he wrote Howl and turned into James Franco. In Kill Your Darlings, Ginsburg is a fresh-faced young man attending Columbia University in 1944. He meets fellow future Beats Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston), Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan) and William Burroughs (Ben Foster), all drawn together in a murder that would cement their bond. When the film premiered at Sundance it garnered a pretty positive response; now the rest of us get an opportunity to see what all the fuss is about.
Despite barely reaching the name of teaser, the half-trailer for Kill Your Darlings is pretty damned impressive. Radcliffe looks the part of Ginsberg, and there are some tantalizing images of smoky cafes and classroom questioning of authority. The trailer cuts off at the thirty-second mark, I’m sorry to say, but what we get is enough to make me intrigued to see the rest of the film; or at least the rest of the trailer.
Kill Your Darlings was directed by John Krokidas. It also stars Michael C. Hall, Elizabeth Olsen and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Check out the little teaser below and let us know what you think of this momentary glimpse of greatness in the comments.
Kill Your Darlings is set for a limited release on October 18. Before then we hope to see a full trailer, which we will happily bring to you just as soon as Sony gifts us with it.