IFC Films has released a new trailer for Sputnik. This is the feature directorial debut of Egor Abramenko. The Russian-language genre flick made the festival rounds earlier this year, playing at the Tribeca Film Festival and Sitges. From what we can see in this initial footage, Abramenko has opted to channel the likes of great filmmakers such as Ridley Scott and John Carpenter for his debut in what looks to be a tense and terrifying sci-fi journey.
The trailer kicks off with news of an incident in space. Whatever went down is top secret, and the first half of the footage is very much draped in mystery, layering in intrigue with various shots that raise questions, answering little. Things then take a sci-fi turn and there are some serious Alien vibes. For what it's worth, IFC promises that this will deliver "something fresh to the interplanetary monster-movie canon" with "massive scale and brutal carnage." Though the trailer is doing its best to keep this movie's secrets guarded, the footage does speak to that.
In addition to the trailer, the studio has released a new poster for the movie as well, which offers a foggy glimpse of the creature at the center of this story. It also boasts the ominous tagline, "The only survivor did not come back alone." Oksana Akinshina, Pyotr Fyodorov, Fedor Bondarchuk and Anton Vasilev star. Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev penned the screenplay. Mikhail Vrubel, Alexander Andryushenko, Fedor Bondarchuk, Ilya Stewart, Murad Osmann, Pavel Burya and Vyacheslav Murugov are on board as producers. As for Egor Abramenko, though this is his first feature, he previously directed shorts such as Polaroid Love and The Passenger. Abramenko has this to say about where the idea came from.
"I love monsters and always wanted to make one of my own. When this idea first came to me 5 years ago, the concept of a space parasite destroying humans seemed quite fresh. Especially there wasn't such a precedent in Russian movies. And I realized that Soviet Space Era is a great setting for creating monsters."
In Sputnik, taking place in 1983, due to her controversial methods, a young doctor named Tatiana Yurievna is on the verge of losing her medical license. She is given a chance at saving her career, though after being recruited by the military. Tatiana is brought to a secure science research facility to assess a very unique case relating to Konstantin Sergeyevich, a cosmonaut who survived a mysterious incident in space and has returned to Earth with a unique condition. Something is living inside of him that only shows itself late at night. The military has nefarious plans for it. Tatiana wants to stop it from killing Konstantin. The creature itself thrives on destruction.
IFC is one of the only studios that had success this summer, with The Wretched becoming an unlikely box office hit. They also recently released Swallow, How to Build a Girl and Relic. Sputnik is set to arrive in select Drive-In movie theaters, digital platforms and VOD on August 14 from IFC Films. Be sure to check out the new trailer for yourself.
