Originally slated to hit theaters earlier this year through Universal Pictures and Legendary Entertainment, the new thriller Spectral was picked by Netflix last month and slated with a December 9 release date on the streaming service. Today we have the first trailer for Spectral, exactly one week before fans around the world can watch this thriller. Spectral was initially set for release on August 12, which would have put it up against Pete’s Dragon, Sausage Party and Florence Foster Jenkins.
Spectral follows a brilliant DARPA scientist who goes on a deadly mission with a Special Ops team of Delta Force soldiers into a war-torn city where mysterious phantom aggressors code-named Spectral have been causing inexplicable civilians deaths. The cast includes James Badge Dale, Emily Mortimer, Max Martini, Cory Hardrict and Bruce Greenwood. Production took place on location in Budapest, Hungary, with Peter Jackson’s Weta Workshop creating the futuristic weapons, with Weta Digital providing the visual effects.
Nic Mathieu makes his directorial debut with Spectral, working from a script written by John Gatins (Kong: Skull Island), George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau), Jamie Moss (Ghost in the Shell) and Ian Fried (The Ever After Murders). Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni serve as producers on Spectral, with Jillian Share and Guy Riedel serving as executive producers. While it won’t be released in theaters, it does debut the same day that Paramount’s Office Christmas Party debuts, but since Netflix doesn’t release viewing data, we won’t know how many people will watch this supernatural thriller next weekend.
Junkie XL, who provided the music for two of this year’s biggest box office hits, Batman v Superman and Deadpool, provides the musical score for Spectral. This sci-fi thriller is just the latest film in Netflix’s growing push to debut more narrative features. Last month, the streaming service debuted the Kevin James action film True Memoirs of an International Assassin, and a week after Spectral debuts, Netflix will debut their next original film, Barry, on December 16, a biopic centering on a young Barack Obama in his junior year of college.
James Badge Dale is coming off roles in 13 Hours and The Walk, and he is currently filming The Empty Man, with Granite Mountain, starring Miles Teller, Jennifer Connolly, Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin and Taylor Kitsch, currently in post-production. Emily Mortimer most recently starred in the HBO series Doll & Em, and she recently signed on to play Jane Banks in the highly-anticipated Mary Poppins Returns, alongside Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
The streaming service will also be launching their new Brad Pitt movie War Machine, which hasn’t been given a release date at this time. Next year, Netflix will release David Brent: Life on the Road on February 10, which stars Ricky Gervais as his iconic character from the original U.K. version of The Office and other films such as Okja, Naked and First They Killed My Father, although no release dates were given for those last three movies yet. Take a look at the first trailer for Spectral below.