'Jungle' Trailer: It's Daniel Radcliffe Versus Mother Nature
In the years since Daniel Radcliffe finished the Harry Potter franchise, the British actor has taken on a wide variety of intriguing roles. Having made enough money from the series that made him famous, he's free to take on roles that are truly unique and interest him as an artist rather than being desperate to keep acting for a paycheck. Another one of those movies is coming this fall.
Jungle is adapted from Yossi Ghinsberg's memoir of the same name, following the Israeli backpacker in the 1980s as he ends up stranded in the Amazon jungle after an excursion goes terribly wrong, leaving them at the mercy of the wilderness. Daniel Radcliffe stars as Ghinsberg, the the first trailer shows him encountering all sorts of terrifying scenarios in the jungle. It looks like a harrowing story of survival to say the least.
Watch the Jungle trailer below.
Entertainment Weekly debuted the trailer for the film from director Greg McLean (Wolf Creek, The Belko Experiment), and it basically looks like Daniel Radcliffe's tropical nightmare version of The Revenant. Even crazier is that it's all true, and despite the suspense and danger on display in the trailer, the man who really survived the elements says the limitations of the film's production have a hard time capturing how truly terrifying this scenario was. Ghinsberg told The Sydney Morning Herald, "I have to tell you, usually movies are bigger than life. This movie is smaller than life. Everything you see is on a smaller scale than what really happened."
Still, the movie looks like it has done a fine job of bringing the horrors of surviving in the jungle to life, not to mention giving Daniel Radcliffe yet another unique role for him to tackle, putting in a strong performance, complete with a convincing Israeli accent, making his voice unrecognizable.
However, after premiering at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August, the reviews haven't been all that complimentary. The Hollywood Reporter says, "Fronted by a committed Daniel Radcliffe sporting a bushy beard and creditable Israeli accent, this is a survival thriller without much in the way of you-know-what, and seems destined to land in the Amazonian bog into which films that satisfy neither grindhouse nor art house are sucked." Plus, The Guardian writes, "In McLean's hands, Ghinsberg's story feels less like nonfiction than Ozploitation-goes-tropical. His direction treads a timeworn, genrefied path, hemming and hawing through fake-out scares and jabbing crescendos."
At the very least, this could be a fine showcase for Daniel Radcliffe as an actor, even if the movie doesn't become anything except a typical horror story of survival. As someone who enjoyed Wolf Creek, I'm hoping for the best, but will reserve judgment until I see the movie in full.
In the early 1980s, 22-year-old Israeli backpacker Yossi Ghinsberg and two friends – Swiss teacher Marcus Stamm and American photographer Kevin Gale – set off from the Bolivian city of La Paz on what was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime. Leading the way into the uncharted Amazon was Austrian expat Karl Ruprechter, who had met the friends just days before and claimed to be familiar with the region. But their dream trip soon turned into a wilderness nightmare from which not all of the men returned.
Jungle hits select theaters and VOD on October 20.