The film-making duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods came to prominence almost a decade ago, with the release of horror films such as Nightlight, Haunt, and A Quiet Place. It was the latter that made the duo’s names, bringing in a cool $350 million worldwide on a minuscule budget back in 2018, and garnering rave reviews as well as a handful of Academy Award, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominations for its slick storytelling and a bravura performance from Emily Blunt in the lead role.

Now they are set to expand into the realm of science fiction, with the much-delayed project 65 finally getting on wheels. But for such a highly-anticipated movie, 65 has been surrounded in secrecy, with all but the most rudimentary details eluding even the most dedicated movie aficionado. Here’s what we know so far.

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Plot of 65

Part of the publicity drive for Beck and Woods’ film has relied on keeping the details intentionally vague in order to drum up an atmosphere of intrigue and mystery. However, it would seem that the script has undergone substantial revision in the years since the project was first mooted. Back in 2020, the film was touted as a horror thriller, with a plot including an opioid addict who has a serious accident, the only other survivor of which is a little girl with whom he must work in order to survive.

However, a more recently published logline states simply that an astronaut crash-lands on a planet, only to “[discover] that he’s not alone”. Those expecting shades of Interstellar may be wrongfooted, however - a great deal of speculation on social media has centered around the rumors that the plight of the astronaut will center around a population of dinosaurs living on the planet. Fans await the release of an official trailer to find out one way or another.

Cast of 65

     UGC

Heading the cast of 65 is Adam Driver. Driver is, of course, no stranger to sci-fi, having played Kylo Ren in the Star Wars franchise; but appearances in space opera may be of less benefit to him for his role in 65 than his other dramatic work on the big screen. Early appearances in historical epics such as Lincoln (2012, opposite Daniel Day-Lewis) and the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) were followed by a barnstorming performance opposite Scarlett Johansson in the heart-wrenching relationship drama Marriage Story (2019), for which Driver was nominated for an Academy Award. Driver’s most recent appearances - in Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci last year, and Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, which was released late last month - will be complemented by a starring role in Michael Mann’s Ferrari, about the enigmatic car manufacturer, which is due to hit cinemas next year.

Driver’s co-stars are the child actors Ariana Greenblatt and Chloe Coleman. Greenblatt is fifteen years old, but already has a surprising number of credits to her name, including Disney’s long-running TV comedy Stuck in the Middle, in which she played the youngest sister of Jenna Ortega’s Harley Diaz; Avengers: Infinity War (2018), in which she briefly appeared as a young Gamora; and Netflix’s science fiction thriller Awake, in which she played the daughter of Golden Globe recipient Gina Rodriguez. Fans of the Borderlands video game franchise should keep an eye out for Greenblatt’s upcoming appearance in Eli Roth’s cinematic adaptation, which also stars Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jack Black.

Chloe Coleman’s resume is similarly impressive. The fourteen-year-old has starred in various feature films in the last two years, including Prime’s spy comedy My Spy (2020) opposite Dave Bautista, and opposite former Doctor Who star Karen Gillan and Star Trek: Discovery star Michelle Yeoh in Gunpowder Milkshake (2021). Coleman’s biggest credit yet will be a supporting role in James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, which premieres in the United States on Friday.

Release Date of 65

     20th Century Studios

Beck and Woods have gone to lengths to assemble an impressive array of talent in their production team, including tapping long-time Tim Burton collaborator Danny Elfman (Batman, Fifty Shades of Grey, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) for the score, and Salvatore Totino (The Da Vinci Code, Spider-Man: Homecoming) as cinematographer.

The film’s lengthy gestation period has also inevitably led to some slippage in terms of its release. Like many movies conceived during the Covid pandemic, 65 has had a circuitous route through the schedules, originally being slated for an early 2022 release before being moved back to 2023 in February. Even then, the film ping-ponged its way through the calendar, with release dates in early and late April being publicized before March 10 was finally decided upon earlier this year.