Whenever you see Guillermo del Toro’s name attached to a project, there’s always the chance that he’ll never get around to actually making it, and the filmmaker is open about admitting that he’s spent years of his professional career working on things that never appear onscreen.
Luckily, Nightmare Alley is coming to theaters on December 17th so its fate is already sealed, in what marks del Toro’s first movie since he nabbed two Academy Awards for producing and directing The Shape of Water. Based on the 1946 novel by William Lindsay Gresham, which was brought to the screen just one year later, a typically star-studded cast has been assembled to tell a twisted tale of double lives and double-crosses.
Bradley Cooper’s Stanton Carlisle and Cate Blanchett’s Lilith Ritter are our leads, a carny and psychologist respectively who get drawn into a dark, dingy and seedy conspiracy. Empire Magazine has unveiled a brand-new image of the duo from Nightmare Alley, which you can check out below.
Del Toro admitted that his plan was to use Nightmare Alley as a way to explore the underbelly of the American Dream, so we’re expecting great things from the film, even if it doesn’t possess the fantastical elements we’ve come to expect from the man behind Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak and more.