Here's what I love about this time of the year. The previous year's movies are done. All the year end articles are done. All the articles looking ahead at the next year are done. Now we can finally just start digging into 2015, and that means new trailers, new posters, and tons of potential.
Take “Child 44,” for example. The film was one of the ones that got spotlighted in our recent piece about the films we are most looking forward to this year, and we built that one the way we build many of the galleries here at HitFix. We all voted, ranking the titles according to our own interests. I'll admit… I didn't vote for “Child 44” in that initial round, but that's because I didn't know much about it. Several of the writers here at the site loved the book, though, and because of that, they're ready to see how it's been adapted.
The book, the first in a trilogy by Tom Rob Smith, is set during the Stalin era in the Soviet Union, when policeman Leo Demidov (Tom Hardy) is assigned to a case that leads him down a destructive path. It's loosely based on the real-life crimes of Andrei Chikatilo, a child murdering serial killer, and in the film, Leo ends up being pushed off of the case once he starts making headway, since the official policy of the state is that “there is no crime.” That is such a strange and fascinating backdrop for a film like this, and I'm excited to see how well director Daniel Espinosa captures a terrifically interesting era from our recent past.
Noomi Rapace plays Leo's wife, who helps him with his investigation, which he continues even after he's removed from duty, and Gary Oldman's onboard as one of Leo's superiors. Ridley Scott originally toyed with the idea of making this, and he's still onboard as one of the producers.
Having not read the book, I'm just excited by this thing's pedigree, and I look forward to digging into the trilogy at some point this year.
“Child 44” opens April 17, 2015.