‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ Trailer: Drew Goddard’s ‘The Martian’ Follow-Up Is An Eerie Ensemble Film Set in 1969
Celebrate, “Mad Men” fans: three long years after wrapping the series, Jon Hamm is back in ’60s threads in the first “Bad Times at the El Royale” trailer. Instead of pitching multimillion-dollar ad campaigns, here he’s peddling vacuums. Hamm’s salesman joins Dakota Johnson’s felon, Chris Hemsworth’s cult leader, and Jeff Bridges’ priest-who-might-not-actually-be-a-priest as unlucky hotel guests just hoping to reach check-out time alive.
Following 2012’s “The Cabin in the Woods” — also starring Hemsworth, written with his former “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” boss Joss Whedon — “Bad Times” is Drew Goddard‘s second feature as a director. An Oscar-nominated screenwriter (“The Martian”) who also penned “Cloverfield” and “World War Z,” Goddard will next write and direct the 20th Century Fox tentpole “X-Force.” On “Bad Times,” Goddard produced with Jeremy Latcham, a veteran of the “Iron Man” and “Avengers” franchises.
Overlooking Lake Tahoe, the fictional El Royale straddles the Nevada/California border. The film’s logline includes the phrase “seven strangers, each with a secret to bury,” sounding like a mash-up between “Clue” and “Room 104.” Take those words verbatim: in footage shown this spring at 20th Century Fox’s CinemaCon presentation, a man in his hotel room pulled back the carpet, hid a package under the floorboards, gingerly reassembled the layout, and took a cop’s fatal bullet.
The ensemble also includes Nick Offerman, Lewis Pullman (“Battle of the Sexes”), Cailee Spaeny (“Pacific Rim: Uprising”) and “The Color Purple” Tony winner Cynthia Erivo, playing a songstress named Darlene Sweet (according to The Tracking Board, that role was first offered to Beyoncé).
“Bad Times at the El Royale” lands in theaters on October 5. Watch the trailer below, then scroll down for the poster and additional photos.
