'The Circle' Trailer: Tom Hanks Is Watching You, Emma Watson
After Emma Watson meets up with her beastly prince and before John Boyega jets off to galaxy far, far away, the pair will be meeting up in The Circle. Directed by James Ponsoldt and based on the novel by Dave Eggers, the techno-thriller stars Watson and Boyega as employees of a wildly successful tech company run by a charismatic founder (played by Tom Hanks). The Circle promises a seamless existence guided by transparency and civility – all you have to do is give over all your personal information, and maybe start using one of the company's ubiquitous SeeChange cameras. What could possibly go wrong, right?
Watch The Circle trailer below.
The Circle Trailer
From here, The Circle trailer plays a bit like a bigger-budget episode of Black Mirror — not that that's a bad thing. Like the best episodes of that show, The Circle takes something already present in our everyday lives and amplifies it just enough to make it seem both terrifying and inevitable. Speaking to USA Today, Ponsoldt spoke a bit about the point of view represented by Bailey, the Steve Jobs-like leader played by Hanks:
Bailey's notion is that knowing is good, and knowing everything is better. He believes all experiences should be available to everyone, not only the privileged or people who can afford to them. He's deeply interested in technology that can make people share all human experiences with everyone. He's a boundary pusher, even boundary destroyer.
He sounds like a million other tech visionaries we've heard from over the years. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that in The Circle, his obsession with transparency will prove to have some serious downsides — maybe for him, definitely for his customers. First, though, The Circle looks seductive. Mae (Watson) finds herself going from an adrift college grad to a rising star within a prominent company, and it's all pretty wonderful for her until she finds herself trapped in what Ponsoldt describes "almost a religion and then a glass prison of celebrity." How exactly it all goes sour, though, you'll have to watch the film to find out.
The Circle arrives April 28, 2017. Also starring in the film are Karen Gillan as Mae's friend and co-worker Annie, Patton Oswalt as another key figure within the company, Bill Paxton and Glenne Headly as Mae's parents, and Ellar Coltrane (Boyhood) as Mae's ex.