The first trailer for Nia DaCosta's punky period drama Hedda is here, and it sees Thor star Tessa Thompson caught in a lesbian love triangle.
Clearly inspired by the likes of Saltburn and The Great Gatsby, the promo promises a film that blends quippy comedy with tension-filled intrigue – as it opens on Thompson's titular character being asked by an unseen man to recount "the events of the evening up to the incident", as a flashback shows a body bag being carried out of the front door of her stately home.
Continuing to tweak Henrik Ibsen's original 1891 play slightly, DaCosta's then takes us back to that night as Hedda and her new husband George Tesman (Tom Bateman) throw quite the glitzy rager. "Nothing can go wrong, nothing," he tells his wife, though it's immediately evident that things are about to go very, very wrong when Hedda's former paramour Eileen (Nina Hoss) arrives with her new girlfriend Thea (Imogen Poots).
"My initial instinct was [that Eileen, a man named Eilert in the source material] should be female because it helps themes about power and autonomy, about choice, about self-regulation," DaCosta told Vanity Fair. "I think Hedda is someone who imprisons herself a lot as well, as much as society does."
The filmmaker, who previously teamed up with Thompson on The Marvels and indie flick Little Woods, recalled watching hours of Hedda Gabler stage productions at theater libraries but finding them a little... lackluster compared to what she'd first experienced on the page. "I liked [them], but I thought, 'This is not as funny or dark or sexy as what I felt when I was reading it. So I was like, Wouldn't it be cool to do a movie where I make all the subtext text?"
What follows is a montage of dance sequences, stolen glances, near-miss kisses, gunshots, and a bunch of characters angrily asking Hedda variations of "what has got into you?" and "why are you like this?" Watch it above.
"She's mad and bad, but she's still a person, and you kind of love her because she's so ridiculous," said DaCosta. We can't wait to meet her.
Hedda releases in select theaters on October 22, before landing on Amazon Prime Video a week later. For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming movies heading our way.
