What do we know about Jaeden Lieberher’s Alton? Not much, as it turns out. But today’s eerie international trailer for Midnight Special does shed some light on Lieberher’s bespectacled anomaly, and just why he has government figures and mysterious cults scrambling after him in the first place.
Fending off those potential perpetrators is Michael Shannon’s towering father figure, Roy, who shields his treasured eight-year-old from the world around him. But Lieberher’s young protagonist harbors a deep secret, and though today’s snippet for Midnight Special smartly skates around spoilers, we’re holding out for some old-school science fiction once those endearing swimming googles finally come off.
Behind the lens for the feature is Jeff Nichols (Mud, Take Shelter), presiding over a star-studded cast sheet that makes room for Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst as Alton’s doting mother, Adam Driver as a relentless government official, Sam Shepard, Bill Camp, Scott Haze and, finally, Paul Sparks.
Midnight Special will be in attendance at SXSW 2016 over the course of the weekend, before making its way into theaters nationwide come March 18.
Roy (Michael Shannon) is a father desperate to protect his uniquely gifted, eight-year-old son in this genre-defying thriller which proves once again that director Jeff Nichols is one of the most compelling storytellers of our time. As father and son go on the run, an intense chase ensues as they are hunted down by a mysterious cult and a clandestine government agency – the outcome of which could bring about a world-changing event.