I don’t know about you but I have never had any desire to make Russell Crowe mad. Maybe it’s his size, maybe it’s his accent, maybe it’s the fact that he throws God damn telephones at people. Whatever the reason, I have always wanted to stay on Crowe’s good side.
And now the new trailer for his upcoming film Unhinged proves that I was right to avoid upsetting the Oscar winner. Because Russell Crowe looks mad as hell. Watch:
As you can tell, Unhinged is about a road rage incident that spirals way out of control and risks the life of a young mother and her entire family. Crowe plays the villain, full of pure anger and aggression. It’s a part he doesn’t play often. Despite his hot head, Crowe usually plays a good guy so Unhinged will go against type and that’s exciting. The film comes to us from director Derrick Borte (American Dreamer) and writer Carl Ellsworth. Ellsworth previously wrote the Wes Craven thriller Red Eye, which feels a lot like Unhinged to me. I got a kick out of that one so I think I might get a kick out of this one too.
The most interesting thing about Unhinged is its release date. Solstice Studios, the independent company behind Unhinged, plans to release the movie — in theaters — on July 1. That means the film will be the first movie to hit screens since the COVID-19 pandemic began and theaters across the world shut down. Obviously things could change between now and July 1 but Solstice has serious intention to have Unhinged be the first movie audiences see since the lockdown started.
If the movie really does debut at the beginning of July, it’ll jump past Tenet to become the first major film to premiere in the age of COVID-19. That presents a lot of challenges: many theaters in America will still be closed come July 1. In fact, most theaters will still be closed. But those that will be open won’t have any new movies to choose from and that means that Unhinged would get a lot of screen time. Any theater-goer with a desire to see something original would have only one choice: Unhinged. So this could be a smart business move. Then again, Solstice may nix the whole plan when they see the dismal theater attendance numbers as theaters continue to open worldwide and here in the states. Like everything related to COVID-19, a lot is up in the air.