There were few films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival that generated the kind of buzz that “Train Dreams” did.
The feature, directed by Clint Bentley from a script he wrote with Greg Kwedar, got some of the best reviews of the festival (our own review called it an “epic of breathtaking visual splendor and formidable lyrical cinematic poetry”) and was quickly snapped up by Netflix, who will be releasing it this November. The first trailer for the acclaimed film has just been released. You can watch it below.
The film, based on Denis Johnson’s Pulitzer-nominated novella, “is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker who leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly-changing America of the early 20th Century,” according to the official synopsis. Grainier is played by Joel Edgerton, with Felicity Jones as his wife. The rest of the cast includes Kerry Condon, William H. Macy, Clifton Collins Jr., Paul Schneider and Will Patton as the voice of the narrator.
Bentley and Kwedar last collaborated on the Oscar-nominated screenplay for “Sing Sing,” which Kwedar also directed. It was financed and produced by Black Bear.
“Train Dreams” is part of Netflix’s gargantuan awards-season slate that also includes Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” Edward Berger’s “Ballad of a Small Player,” Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” Rian Johnson’s new “Knives Out” entry “Wake Up Dead Man” and Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite.”
“Train Dreams” arrives in theaters on Nov. 7 and on Netflix Nov. 21.
