TRAILERS

First Teaser Trailer for 'Ikiru' Remake Titled 'Living' Starring Bill Nighy

by Alex Billington
August 17, 2022
Source: YouTube

"Small wonder I didn't notice what I was becoming…" Sony Pictures Classics has revealed an official teaser trailer for the film Living, which is actually an English-language remake of the beloved Akira Kurosawa film Ikiru from 1952. This premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and earned rave reviews as one of the best films of the fest, and a rare remake that actually lives up to the original in every way (which is an especially impressive feat considering the original is one of Akira Kurosawa's best films). Set in London in the 1950s, Bill Nighy stars in the lead role as Williams, a grumpy, curmudgeonly government office worker who has an awakening when he's diagnosed with terminal cancer. He realizes he hasn't really be "living" and goes about trying to change that. Also starring Alex Sharp, Adrian Rawlins, Hubert Burton, Oliver Chris, Michael Cochrane, and Aimee Lou Wood as Margaret Harris. I saw this in Sundance and fell hard for it, easily one of the best films of the year. This is a lovely introductory teaser. With a release coming up in December, we expect this to get plenty of attention during the awards season - Bill Nighy is at his best.

Here's the very first teaser trailer for Oliver Hermanus' Living, direct from SPC's YouTube:

1953. A London shattered by WWII is still recovering. Williams (Bill Nighy), a veteran civil servant, is an impotent cog within the city’s bureaucracy as it struggles to rebuild. Buried under paperwork at the office, lonely at home, his life has long felt empty and meaningless. Then a shattering medical diagnosis forces him to take stock – and to try and grasp fulfillment before it goes beyond reach. Living is directed by acclaimed South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus, director of the films Shirley Adams, Beauty, The Endless River, and Moffie previously. The screenplay is written by Kazuo Ishiguro; based on the 1952 film Ikiru, written by Akira Kurosawa & Shinobu Hashimoto & Hideo Oguni. It's produced by Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen. This initially premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year (read our review) and it is playing at the Venice Film Festival in September next. Sony Classics will then debut Hermanus' Living film in select US theaters starting on December 23rd, 2022 later this fall. Look good?

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