‘Wendy’ Trailer: Benh Zeitlin Reimagines ‘Peter Pan’
Watch the trailer for Benh Zeitlin’s newest film, a wildly inventive take on the classic tale of Peter Pan. The story follows young, tomboyish Wendy (Devin France) and her friends, who escape to a remote island where time stands still and childhood never has to end.
As the trailer suggests, this isn’t your average fairytale adaptation. Wendy appears to go one step further than most Disney live action remakes (the newest being Lady and the Tramp on Disney+) by completely reinventing its original source material. It starts out as an epic adventure, but about a minute in, things take a dark turn. Things begin to feel less like Peter Pan and more like Lord of the Flies. The soundtrack shifts from joyous and hopeful to something more ominous. And listen closely to the melody in the background — it’s eerily similar to “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me).” Something tells us these pirates are more sinister than Captain Hook.
Zeitlin is best known for his 2012 fantasy drama Beasts of the Southern Wild, which also features a child lead, the six-year old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis). Beasts performed very well on the festival circuit, winning both the Caméra d’Or Award at Cannes and the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Wendy is both directed and written by Zeitlin, and will be released with Fox Searchlight Pictures in February 2020. With the new acquisition of Fox by Disney, creative retellings of Disney classics could become the new trend.
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