Updated: A full HD version has been provided by Hammer and is embedded below. Also they note the release date is now
February 10th, 2012 and not this October.
The Woman in Black is a big movie for
Daniel Radcliffe, his first post-Harry Potter role and one that in the vein of The Innocents (adapted from the Victorian novel The Taming of the Shrew, which I reviewed
on Blu-ray last year), is a one-character show and a massive test of his talents. Given the nature of the role, the spotlight will be shone brightly on his ability to make the scares translate to us because if we don't believe him, we won't believe any of it and the whole thing will be d.o.a. The Woman in Black will push him further than all eight Harry Potter movies and it's also something of an added challenge for the young actor because
Susan Hill's popular 1983 novel and the subsequent adapted play is set around a character who is suggested to be older than Radcliffe, an actor who is so defined by the boy wizard that has taken up the last decade of his life. Indeed Hammer originally offered the lead role of the young solicitor Arthur Kipps, who travels to rural England in order to deal with a recently deceased clients paperwork, only to discover the vengeful ghost of a woman awaiting him' to both
Michael Fassbender and
Colin Farrell before seeing an opportunity of what they could do with Potter's big adult role. Hammer Films released a teaser trailer for the movie over the weekend full of shadows and the hint towards the scares that are to come. I don't remember the classic Hammer Horror label being so subtle with the implication of the horror but I like it; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSHEYVGaWok Written by
Jane Goldman (Stardust, Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class) and directed by
James Watkins (Eden Lake) - the movie opens October 28th in the U.K. with a U.S. date not yet cemented. Ive seen a couple of amateur stage productions of the novel (its got Scarborough roots, so its always playing somewhere in the North East of England) and its an effective, claustrophobic chiller that uses the stage to create an atmospheric tone quite unlike any play I think Ive ever seen. We hope Watkins can find a way to translate that feeling to film, but apparently its going to be in 3D so we are concerned about gimmicked ghosts and the like. Can't take much from a film trailer that teases so much but I like what I saw.