Arrival has Sicario director Denis Villeneuve swapping gang drug violence for intellectual drama about the arrival of a new species. Lights Out writer Eric Heisserer has adapted Ted Chiang's 1998 novella Story Of Your Life (the film originally used that as its title), which finds a linguist named Louise Banks (Adams) pressed into service to figure out an alien language when a dozen mysterious pods appear in the atmosphere and hover above the ground (you can see one in the image with Adams above).
Looking to capture a tone nearer to that Close Encounters than Roland Emmerich, Adams explains the appeal. “This isn’t a graphic-novel universe or creating a new universe. This happens in our world today, as it exists,” she tells the paper. “Not having to transport myself to a universe where superheroes exist, which is also fun, really helped me ground the character and the experience.”
Also brought in to help is a physicist named Ian Donnelly (Renner), who will prove invaluable. “I haven’t played a smart nerdy guy," he says. "I thought there was a great challenge in that." For more on the film, head to USA Today's site.
Given the appearance of imagery, we suspect a trailer is on the way, so watch this space. Arrival lands in the States (and is reportedly due here, though there's no official word about that) on November 11.