Director John Woo is bringing violence and vengeance to Christmas in his latest action-thriller Silent Night.
In an official trailer, lead actor Joel Kinnaman plays a man who seeks revenge for the death of his young son who was accidentally killed during a shootout between gang members. The shootout leaves Kinnaman’s character critically injured and mute. After recovering, he plots his revenge against the killers by Christmas Eve.
His inability to speak though means that most of the movie is dialogue-free.
“The biggest challenge is how do you make the audience accept a story without dialogue, and get them moved by the story, let them understand they’re not missing something,” said Woo (via EW).
The trailer also sees Kinnaman’s character getting into shape, surveilling the criminals and testing his marksmanship before unleashing all violence on his targets. Oh, and all this is done to the tune of Ludwig van Beethovan’s Symphony No. 9.
Most of the stunts, according to Woo, was performed by Kinnaman himself.
“[Kinnaman] did 99 percent of his stunts, and he was also training with our fight coordinator every day, just rehearsing and training for all of the action sequences. He tried [to give] a real performance but only with his eyes, his eyes have so many stories and so many emotions. I was so happy to work with him,” said Woo.
Silent Night is Woo’s American directorial comeback, making it the first American film he directed since Paycheck (2003). It is written by Robert Archer Lynn (Adrenaline, Deadbox).
In addition to Kinnaman, Silent Night also stars Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace, From), rapper Kid Cudi (X, Entergalactic), Harold Torres (Memory, Gonzales: falsos profetas), Vinny O’Brien (Ambulance, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and Yoko Hamamura (Dune, Sweet Girl).
Silent Night is slated to release on 1 December.
Don’t judge a book by its cover, for behind all this makeup, is a geek just like you. To simply put it, superheroes, Star Wars, Harry Potter and all things gore and creepy makes this girly girl swoon.
Edwin Teo
