Following the evocative pair of first trailers for The Neon Demon, it looks like Nicolas Winding Refn may have got his mojo back. Returning to the Cannes competition line-up next month, followed by a U.S. release in June, we recently named the film one of our most-anticipated of the summer, and now we have new images from the film starring Elle Fanning, Keanu Reeves, Christina Hendricks, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, and Bela Heathcoate.
Looking equally inspired by Suspiria and Black Swan, the horror-thriller follows an aspiring model who moves to Los Angeles where her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will go to any lengths to get what she has. The new images mostly highlight our lead, Fanning, but also feature some of the supporting cast.
“There’s something about the light – you can call it artificial light, but I guess all light is artificial besides the sun – and the neon quality of it,” Keanu Reeves says, explaining the title in his own words. “[There’s] something about those colors that attracts and repulses at the same time. And then there’s the demon part. What is the demon within; what is the demon on the outside? Is it ego? It may be a fear of death. Or desire. It’s all sorts of fun stuff.”
In other news, Refn is headed to television — but not in America. According to Variety, the Drive director will serve as showrunner on Italy’s Les Italiens, a noir drama that follows a group of policeman working in Paris. Set for 8-10 episodes, he’ll produce the entire series and likely direct the first episode. Based on Enrico Pandiani‘s novels, the story follows “tough and violent inspector Pierre Mordenti, who is the antithesis of Maigret. The all-Italian squad delves into Paris homicides with political backstories, international secret service intrigues in Eastern Europe and bloody deeds committed in the French countryside, among other atmospheric settings.”
Check out the new images above and below.
The Neon Demon opens in June 2016.